Counterculture

Not Enough Time to Be Disciples

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Been re-reading The Pursuit of God by Aiden Wilson Tozer. This is about the seventh time I’ve read the book, so you would think it would be memorized by now, but what is striking me more this time is his kind way of saying that we simply do not spend enough time before God.

Tozer himself was known to have five hour prayer times in the morning, from 7 a.m till noon. This is one reason why he knew God so well.

But what about us? How do we “normal” Christians get to that rarified place that so few Christians actually reach: deep communion with God?

There is only one way—time. If we don’t spend time before God, large chunks of it—counted in daily hours, not minutes—then we can forget entering the roster of saints. Churches today emphasize everything but extended time on one’s face before God. We have a million shortcuts to “growth,” but the truth is that they all fail.

Recent conversations with other Christians show a paucity of prayer time. There is simply no way we can walk in any depth on fifteen minutes a day. Others counter that they “practice the presence of God” all day. Now that is fine and a great discipline, but we are always shown Jesus’ example of withdrawing to private prayer. Hours of it, too. I simply cannot see the Lord merely practicing the presence in the Garden of Gethsemane. When it comes down to it, practicing the presence is in addition to prayer closet prayer, never a substitute.

We wonder why the Church today in America is so powerless, but we need look no further than the collected hours we Christians spend in prayer daily. Some argue that life is too hectic for prayer time like Tozer, but I would answer then that perhaps we Christians need to rethink everything else in our lives that draws us away from such committed time. We as a Church need to explore alternative ways of living that allow us to free up that time for every person who claims the name of Christ.

But then again, if Christianity is just something we do, then perhaps we should keep on doing what we are doing, sloughing off that precious time in favor of whatever worldly thing is pressing on us in that moment. Millions have already.

Loving the Status Quo to Death

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Over the last few months I have been conversing with Christians all over the world concerning rethinking the Church’s ideas of community, countercultural living, and preparation for a coming storm heading right through our churches’ front doors.

After months of discussions, there is only one conclusion I can reach: We are simply too wrapped up in other things to be bothered.

The status quo has become our new idol. We are resisting changes necessary for the very survival of the Church as a relevant, life-changing force in America. We are resisting the abandonment of so-called “Christian” models and concepts that have proven useless in stemming divorce, family breakups, bankruptcies, drug abuse, and a host of other afflictions that are crushing our families.

We are looking the other way and whistling. Whistling in the wind.

One day things are going to get far worse for us and we are not prepared. We cannot contend with issues that pale in comparison. We have no systems in place for contending for what is coming.

The Lord’s parable of the wise and foolish virgins is a reminder that we have to be prepared. We are not—either in our spiritual lives or in our practical, daily living out of the faith.

Why do we cling to lifestyles that do not work? We do we resist changes that will save so many people from heartache and grief?

Anyone out there want to talk about changing the face of Christianity by coming into the fullness of Christ’s promises to the Church?

I’m here and I want to talk with you about turning the world upside-down.

The Tension

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I feel the tension constantly. As I mature in Christ, I feel it growing. Yet, I know even less how to live in that tension than I believe I once did. Or perhaps I never truly knew how to live in it at all.

There is a tension that exists between this world and the next. The World has its ways and Heaven has its own. Our age today is one in which the overlaps are disappearing, making it harder to navigate a practical Christian life in an impractical world.

An example might help.

A couple months ago in my church, the speaker talked about our need to cast off the World’s views on image. Our appearance does not define who we are, nor does God look at the external but what is within us, unseen by others. Plastic surgery, laser peels, liposuction, hair restoration—they are all symptoms of a dying world; Christians must move beyond them.

Now this is a fine message for people who are obsessed with their appearance. For the woman who thinks that no one can love her because of the way she looks, this is manna. For the teenager struggling with a body that suddenly seems to no longer be the body once known, this is life-giving. It is God’s truth. We cannot ignore it.

But there is a big “however” with this that brings the tension.

The World does care about image, and it cares in ways that have gone far beyond plastic surgery to merely look nice. Suddenly, your image, the way you look, may be the only thing separating you from working and being unemployed. It may mean the difference between the medicine that keeps your sick child alive and not having that medicine due to lack of health insurance benefits provided by an employer.

Newsweek ran a special issue detailing the “Office of the Future.” The center of the magazine had the largest gatefold I had ever seen in a magazine. This six page spread revealed all the gadgets, all the ergonomic devices, all the new concepts that will drive businesses in the near future.

Contained within that gatefold, however, was a statement that went far beyond mere gadgetry and futuristic technology. Instead the message reflected a societal change that was inescapable: none of the two dozen people shown working in the “Office of the Future” were over the age of thirty-five. There was not a gray hair or wrinkle in sight.

Almost prophetically, the very next issue of the magazine had a cover story on Botox. Inside, there were interviews with men and women who often told the same story: “I got Botox injections so that I would not lose my job solely because I was the oldest-looking person in the department.”

The sadness of this is profound and asks us in the Church if we are truly able to help people find the intersection of this world and the next. In this case, the Church can say all it wants about not letting how you look control your life, yet the World is giving a different response that has profound influence in our daily existence.

It’s the tension. And not only do we Christians in the 21st Century not address it well, we often mouth platitudes we don’t believe ourselves as a reassurance that nothing is wrong. But something is overwhelmingly wrong.

It would be easy to point fingers at the sales rep who dyes her hair, gets a face peel, and semi-annual Botox injections. Christians easily point their fingers and yell, “Vanity!” Yet how many of them are willing to go the second mile to prevent the loss of that woman’s job due to age discrimination or to hire her when her boss thinks he wants someone more youthful and hip-looking to represent the company?

The rules of the World’s game are monstrously complex and changing every day. We have to live in this world, though. If the Church is to be the agent of God this side of heaven, then we need better ways to play by the World’s rules while never forsaking the righteousness of Christ.

I don’t have the answers on many of these tension issues, but I know that we must find them. The practical realities of day-to-day living do not give us the option of quitting the game. As Christians in this time and place in history, we have to not only challenge the World, but beat it at its own game.

We need people to step up in order to help us live in this tension—and we need them today.