“You say this prayer, and try to act better, and then you’re
a Christian.” A simplified version/perversion of the gospel that I have heard
way too many times; I remember sharing something like this to a cabin when I first
started counseling at camp MYW. When we become Christians, often times our
first priority is to try to modify our behavior. We try our very best not to
lie or swear, and we feel despair and hopelessness when we mess up. As I am
writing this I can remember a time when I would ask God into my heart at least
once a week. My logic was something like: obviously it didn't work last time
because I am still sinning. Trying to correct our actions is like lifting a
weight into the air, you can do it for a while, but eventually your arms will
give out, and you will be left exhausted. The problem with self-modification is that it
is impossible, as well as unnecessary. The blood of Christ was sufficient; your
sins have been paid for. My distasteful illustration from camp was this:
imagine a bucket full of a disgusting substance. The substance is sin, and the
bucket is the world. No matter what we do in the bucket, we will never be clean;
the only thing we can do is to set our sights on our creator, outside of the
bucket.
In many ways our Christian
walk is similar to the life of a recovering addict. I believe it was Bill
Bright, (founder of campus crusade for Christ) who created the illustration of
our life’s throne. Visualize a room confined within your head, in the middle of
this room there is a throne. The person who occupies this throne is the person
who calls the shots in your life; he decides where you walk, what you do, what
you say etc. Before we were saved, we occupied this chair 24/7. When we become Christians,
often times we still occupy the throne, but there is one huge difference, Jesus
is now inside our “throne room”. So Jesus walks in, and stands there, looking
at us expectantly. Eventually he sits down on the floor and waits... One of the
most beautiful aspects of Gods plan, as it has been revealed to us, is our free
will. Christ is not going to throw you off the throne, though many of us may
prefer him to. It is in this way that I believe
we have much in common with the struggle of an addict. We are addicted to being
on the throne, and it is one of the hardest things in the world, for us to step
down and give the throne/control to Christ.
How can we beat our addiction? Well, taking a leaf out of
Narcotics anonymous’ program, we do this one day at a time. In a sermon my
father once said: “every morning before
my feet hit the ground I ask God to be on the throne of my life, however, by
noon it often seems like there has been a coup, and I’m back on the throne”. Often times I have tried to give Christ the
throne of my life, only to again take control. I am addicted to being in
control. People say it takes 30 days to make a habit, while this habit has had
years to form. You would have to be a fool to tell a drug addict to stop doing
drugs, and expect it to have any lasting effect. The same goes with our addiction to the throne,
though we may try, most of us (who aren’t blessed with something like extreme
will-power) will fail. I have taken up confronting my throne addiction in the
same way that addicts attending NA confront their addictions. One day at a
time, or more specifically, “just for today” I know I can’t go a week, but I can
go a day, and I can do that 7 times.
Give up control, be patient, and listen for the still small
voice.
In a somewhat unrelated thought, how would a new Christian know
that they need to give up their life’s throne? God calls us not to convert, but
to disciple, often times we forget to follow up.
No comments:
Post a Comment