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Why is it so difficult to be Christian ?
Christianity like “old age” is not for the faint of heart.
I know; I qualify on both fronts.
As a young man at age 12, I asked to be baptised. I felt a strong urgeto have a
relationship with my 12 year old idea of God. And so, my parents took me to our
pastor who, after asking somequestions, agreed to baptise me. But, afterwards,
when nothing much had changed, I still wanted a better understanding of who
God was and how God related to me.
At age 13 my parents divorced, and my life was turned up-sidedown. My father
moved away; I was sentto boarding school, and my mother went on to a very
self-destructivelifestyle.
So, like so many other children of all ethnicities and socio-economic groups,
growing up in turmoil without a father, without a positive senseof self, and no
guidance was very difficult. In retrospectmy early life became an emotionally
painful, and lonely journey. By my early twenties I was fully aware my life needed
to change. In 1973 atage 25 years, I was married and had graduated law school.
As I began my professionallife, I wanted to be an excellent attorney. I was very
idealistic about whatthat meant, and it was very importantto me to do my best
for my firm and clients. But, one of my early goals was to be like other successful
attorneys and own a yellow gold Rolex watch. In 1976 on a trip to Hong Kong, I
achieved this goal by purchasing my watch. I couldn’t wait to get home and show
everyonethat I had become a successfulperson. You didn’teven have to ask me,
you justhad to see my gold Rolex. On that sametrip my wife asked me to
purchaseher a $ 60 Rado watch. I said no, we couldn’tafford it.
In 1986, after somethought and reflection, I decided to be confirmed in the
Catholic Church. Later that year my wife and a friend encouraged me to attend a
Cursillo weekend retreat. That weekend experience was truly life changing – on
the weekend I had a very powerfulspiritual experience. I did not come home a
completely new person, but I did come home believing I needed to make changes
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in my life. I thought of it as a journey to maturity. The path would not be easy, but
it’s a journey “good” men musttake. I had a better understanding of St.
Augustine’s often quoted, “God, you havemade us for yourself, and our hearts
are restless till they find their rest in you.”
As I thought about it, I saw maturity as trying to be the best person I could be or,
put in a faith based way, the person God created me to be. I saw four aspects of
this journey: physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual.
I had this senseof whatDavid Brooks in The Road to Character explains as moral
realism where, “we cannotreally grasp the complexity of the world or the full
truth about ourselves … there are bugs in our souls that lead us toward
selfishness and pride, that tempt us to put lower loves over higher loves … the
need to distrustoneself even while waging a noble crusade.”
Of the four aspects, the spiritual battle is the most difficult for me. I’mtoo easily
distracted. As has been said, I love mankind; it’s justpeople I don’t like. In Cursillo
emphasis is placed on spiritual growth through study, piety and action. In my
study I began to see an ongoing and sometimes heated battle between Christian
traditions aboutwho has the “truth”. Christians often get very defensivewhen
another group of Christians claim a superior perspective.
Previously, I had an employee who refused to give away Bibles to inmates
because he believed our American Society Bibles (Good News Translation)
included what this person believed to be non-canonicalmaterial even though this
same material was contained in the original King James translation. Itis this spirit
of division and false piety which makes Christianity so unappealing to many.
Itcan be difficult to understand the Christian community. MostChristians seem to
be non-committal about their faith; they may attend services and say the
politically correctthings, but leave their faith in the parking lot. Having said that,
there are many who are introspectiveand serious and try their best to practice
their faith, and, of course, some Christians arejudgmental and legalistic. The
legalistic ones claim to know God’s intentions in every circumstance. I wish them
well; I justdon’t want to be one of them. I’mcontent to let God be God and
accept my inability to fully understand Him. I desire to be part of a community
trying to express Christ’s callby promoting God’s grace through our lives and
actions. (John 7:20-23).
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We say the Christian God is all about love. What does that suppose aboutother
faith traditions? The confusion, anger, judgment, and violence among the various
Christian and Non-Christian traditions is almost enough to make one walk away
fromorganized religion. Mahatma Gandhi is often quoted as having said: “ I like
your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians areso unlike your Christ.”
How are we to understand the overwhelming majority of Christians throughout
the western world who are nominal Christians? The common explanation is that
these millions have been corrupted by our society. Or is it that whatthey
experience in their lives as Christianity is not authentic nor compelling?
The understanding that salvation comes fromfaith in Jesus Christwhile truthful is
not the full truth unless it also means that the fullness of this faith includes social
action as defined by Christ – James 2: 14-17, Matthew 25:31-46, and perhaps
most importantly, Matthew 5:1-16. Itis this light to the world which seems so dim
at times – not the light of many individuals whoseaction is amazing, but the light
of the Christian community as a whole. Some think to make Christianity more
appealing we must changethe church experience - so the modern trend to
exciting music and highly emotional sermons. In our facebook/twitter society this
trend is understandable, butwith this effort, we often fail to make our churches
new radical communities.
As Ronald J. Sider says in The Scandalof the Evangelical Conscience, “If we grasp
the New testament understanding of the church, then we realize that the
modern, evangelical reduction of Christianity to somepersonal, privatized affair
that only affects my personalrelationship with God and perhaps my personal
family life is blatant heresy. The church is a new, visible social order. Itis a radical
new community visibly living a challenge to the sexual insanity, the racial and
social prejudice, and the economic injustice that pervade the rest of society.”
I am not wise enough to fully understand how we as Christians can more fully
implement Christ’s call to action. But, faced with the marginalization and
impoverishmentof mostof the world, can we at least ask ourselves how wemight
live our Christian faith so as to transformsociety in the direction of true Christian
fellowship.
On a serious journey to be God’s people would we exploit the labor of the poor;
would we fail to educate and provide medical care for children or would we be
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more intentional in our actions to reducethe oppression of discrimination and
social inequality? We might consider setting appropriateboundaries on
governmentaland private institutions which, whether intended or not, through
their social, economic, and political dysfunction areactually preventing true
freedom - true freedommust havesomething to do with promoting
circumstances whereeach individual has an opportunity to develop their
spirituality, their talents and abilities in safety.
That opportunity does not exist for all is not necessarily the fault of any particular
economic or governmentalsystem. To blame a systemor a sub-setof society
misses the point, diverts attention, and keeps us distracted fromaddressing these
spiritual issues. Theproblem is us. In Cursillo we are taught that if you want to
truly understand a person examine how they use their free time, their talent(s),
and their resources. Thesame is also likely true for faith based groups and society
in general.
We shine God’s light by demonstrating love and humility in our daily actions.
Thus Christian action is action motivated by our love of God that seeks to change
the world. How might the world be different, if Christians assumed the
responsibility of living their faith? Our biggest impediment seems to be ourselves
- our pride, the arroganceof human logic and knowledge, and our lack of a
sincere interest in others.
So, a clue to the question of why is it so difficult to be a Christian is justthat it is
extremely difficult. Changing one’s character as Christrequests is so difficult that
it is almostimpossible. But, in every Christian faith tradition we do haveexamples
of men and women who despite their human nature havehelped show us the
path – the path I’mcalling the journey to maturity – the path of restoration to be
the persons God calls us to be.
jat
