Somewhere along my Christian ‘experience’ I managed to pick up some rather unhealthy ideas about what life as a believer should look like. Many of those ideas are now the subject of some painful yet necessary rethinking. For example, I came under the impression that following Christ means you automatically get to enjoy something called ‘ Christian fellowship’ with every other person on the planet who also calls themselves “Christian”. You may have collected that one along the way as well.
Definitions of how this ‘fellowship’ thing actually looks and feels are hard to come by. Christian fellowship seems to be one of those things everyone else in the church assumes you understand, right up there with some other mysteries that are rarely explained, like heaven, sanctification and eternal security (huh? OK, we’ll leave that one for another day). There is a vague, unspoken, belief that Christian fellowship means we…
Do you ever wish you could turn off your mind? I mean, do you think too much? I have always been introspective and analytical….cerebral. Until recently, this personality trait has been no more than a nibbling in the back of my mind. It was controllable. It wasn’t until I was born again that my mind has gone into overload.
Allow me to explain. I publically acknowledged Jesus as my Lord and Savior and was baptized when I was eleven years old. The next 25 years consisted first of “Bible beating” my peers, to wandering away and buying into the lies of political correctness and extreme feminism in my college years, to sleep walking through my mid-twenties and early thirties. It literally was only recently that- during a depressed, dark time- I surrendered all and understood what it was for Jesus not to just be Savior, but Lord. While I cannot give you an exact date, it has certainly been within the last six months that I began to understand what it means to be born againand to walk in the Spirit while abiding in Jesus.
16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Galatians 5
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12 (emphasis mine)
I look at everything differently now and I cannot shut off my mind! Even while performing the mundane tasks of home making and motherhood, I am thinking. Sometimes I cannot help myself but to bounce some of my thoughts off others. Ya know, get their input. I call this intellectual/theological banter. They call it annoying.
This is where the walk gets lonely. Even the Christians in my life cannot see the value in setting aside a few minutes to think about/pontificate issues that do not directly relate to their busy schedules. The lawn must be mowed, car washed, groceries bought, fill in the blank. When I ask what they are thinking about when they do these necessary, but mundane, tasks everyone of them will say…”nothing. I’m just focusing on what I am doing or what I need to do next.”
I cannot imagine this….going through life with thoughts no deeper than what lays before me at that moment or what is next on my To-Do List. I’m not necessarily saying this is wrong. I just cannot fathom it. Even in during my decade of sleep-walking through life…my mind was churning with random thoughts that had little to nothing to do with my chores. I understand every Christian is given a measure of faith and individual gifts to make up the Body of Christ. However, it does get lonely when the thoughts I deem worthy of mental energy are shrugged off by my friends and family, and what they want to talk about is-in my mind-a waste of time.
For example: I am told, “I don’t have time to consider what is happening in Syria, or the Gosnell trial or the riots in Sweden. There’s nothing I can do about any of it, so why bother thinking/talking about it? Sure, times are evil and we are in what must be the last days but I cannot spend much time contemplating prophecy-what’s going to happen is going to happen.” (Which is basically, saying to me, shut up cause my life is more full than yours cause obviously you have too much time on your hands if you are thinking about current events and theological issues.) Meanwhile, I am thinking (but I don’t say so, cause that would be way too rude and hurtful and while I am honest, I do not lack tact), “why should I care about the latest knick-knack you picked up at Hobby Lobby or how you’ve got this and this to do or what so-and-so said about so-and-so? Don’t you know we could be raptured at any moment? THIS is what consumes your thoughts?”.
Ah, we each have our own walk and we must all work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). Still, I wonder-am I nuts for giving a hoot about current events and topics pertaining to God’s Word (while not in “church”)? Some times I feel as though I am beating my head against a wall wishing those I love would have that “light bulb” moment that Jesus is about to return. We are living in exciting and important times. Why do so few people “get” this? Lots of people say they do, but I cannot help but doubt it because if they did they wouldn’t be so concerned about the day-to-day but instead be excited and looking up as they went about their day.
Dr. Doug Borchman is a scientist who has studied the human eye for many years. Though formerly an atheist, Dr. Borchman has come to believe in a God who created the world and wanted to have a relationship with him. Borchman says, “I believe God gave us science to show He exists. One hundred years ago, we didn’t have the tools to see all this. Science tells us there must be something else. It takes an intelligent designer to produce the level of complexity in our world. The cornea, lens, retina, nerves, connections are ridiculously complex. There is so much to know. For an eye to be able to see, all the basic components must be present at the same time and work together perfectly.”
Charles Darwin, the founder of evolutionary theory, understood how difficult it is to apply evolution to the eye. He said, “…that the eye…could have been…
Somewhere along my Christian ‘experience’ I managed to pick up some rather unhealthy ideas about what life as a believer should look like. Many of those ideas are now the subject of some painful yet necessary rethinking. For example, I came under the impression that following Christ means you automatically get to enjoy something called ‘ Christian fellowship’ with every other person on the planet who also calls themselves “Christian”. You may have collected that one along the way as well.
A Mom Looking Up 