Assumptions

There’s something ironic about writing on someone else’s assumptions, it’s hard not to make assumptions about the assumptive writer, especially when they paint a vilifying picture of something they don’t completely understand. Which is an assumption, but an assumption grounded on the details of someone else’s writing. There is a certain magazine that continues to print articles about Christianity, but it’s articles paint Christianity as a hypocritical, dumb-dumb only club. That to be Christian is to be ignorant, small-minded, unobserving, loud, obnoxious, overly-opinionated, dictatorial, and regressive. To prove their point about how stupid Christians are they reference the book Christians read and then talk about how Christians don’t read their own book. They point out cultural conflicts, difficult to practice passages, and the opinions of modern scholarship. To top it all off they then point to Jesus, saying how Jesus loved people and that’s what Christianity is all about, concluding that’s the central argument of the book Christian’s read. They say Christians are stupid, because they don’t understand or practice the central point of their own book. They then pat themselves on the back for ‘getting’ what most ‘Christians’ don’t. In their tirade against Christianity they display none of the qualities they think are valuable and Christians should do; specifically, loving your neighbor. It’s as if they’ve proof texted the book Christians read, formed an opinion, hyperbolized it, and then put it into print. It doesn’t feel good to have someone mock you who doesn’t understand you. It doesn’t feel good to have someone make false assumptions about your faith when they’ve misunderstood it.

 

The central point of Christianity is not loving our neighbors, its loving God.

 

Loving God doesn’t mean condoning or practicing hypocritical, hyperbolic, or vilifying behaviors, it means putting our focus on something higher, something holy. It means being able to look beyond the slander someone else throws, and hold true to the nature of Christianity. What is that nature? Admitting God loved us before we loved Him. Admitting He cares for us even though we ignore Him. Confessing we are not perfect. Forgiving because we’ve been forgiven. These are the fruits of loving God.

 

It is only by what God has given us that we give anything to each other. When we have nothing to give it’s because our relationship with God has run dry. That’s why so many Christians are struggling, they have taken their focus off God and are still trying to love others without the fruit of God. That’s why Christianity is struggling, it’s put something else first, and even though it’s noble, it’s not what’s central.

 

My challenge to those who misunderstand Christianity is simple. Try loving God first. How do you do this? Don’t just read the book Christians read, try going to the place Christians gather to talk about God. Go a couple of times and try to see what it is Christians base their values. And if you are so moved, try practicing the fruit of loving God by loving others.

Redefining

When I started Spiritual Fitness, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it. When I stopped writing a few months ago it’s because I knew my purpose had shifted. I no longer wanted to write about fitness. The whole idea of connecting fitness and spirituality came out of my experience in a group exercise room in Plano Texas. Fitness helped me rebuild and process life events. As I write this I have the desire to say fitness has helped me process life events. As I write this I recognize that fitness is not what has helped me rebuild, it has been people: friends, family, the church and God. Fitness is of some value, and its unalterably true that I find a lot of peace and answers when I exercise. Fitness is my meditation, but to say that my meditations have made me whole would be to deny what I have been meditating on: Spiritual Truth. In recent months I’ve been re-examining who God is, and consequently over-turning my own misperceptions of Him. One of the truths I’ve recognized is that God is sovereign; He is Lord of all creation. Too often I recognize that I’ve made Him a god of my comfort, that if I’m not comfortable, or comfortable in my own discomfort, I’m doing something wrong. God doesn’t really care whether I’m comfortable or not, He cares I love and serve him.

Reading the Old Testament has brought me to this conclusion. Many of the books and passages I thought depicted God as a sovereign and aloof were wrong. God is not aloof. He is involved. He’s involved because He cares. God sovereignly cares, but he will sit back and watch us in our discomfort because we do not turn to Him. We actively run away from the truth of who God is because accepting who He is means setting aside our false ideas about Him and embracing the truth; God loves us enough to watch us make mistakes. He loves us enough to let our mistakes drive us away from Him. He loves us enough to watch from the sidelines as we make mistakes on the playing field. He does not remain silent while we make mistakes, but whether or not we listen to His coaching is up to us. He constantly coaches, but most of the time we don’t listen. We don’t listen because we are unwilling to admit our mistakes and come clean.

In the past few weeks I’ve been listening, and asking that odd Christian questions, “What is my calling?” Which simply means what is my purpose in life? My purpose is simple, to build up and encourage the church. Most of my life I’ve thought this means professional ministry. And that is where I have had another misconception. Building up the church is not just a task for ministers, it’s the task of every Christian. Of the everyday, ordinary, untrained person who sits in a building a few times a month. It’s the task of all of those who identify Jesus as Lord. It’s a task I’ve seen performed and understood at individual churches, but sadly is a task misunderstood by the Church. The Church isn’t an organization of public speakers, music artists, and people who come and watch. It’s a community of people who share what they have. Including vocational skills, artistic talents, shoulders, hands, feet, and time.  It’s not about having, it’s about giving. Too often I’ve felt I’ve needed to have something in order to give it. But what I’ve learned about God is that he doesn’t want me to attain something in order to give it, he’s simply wanted me to give of myself. Jesus set the example, and it’s the foundation of the Church. Giving of ourselves. It’s what helped me get back on my feet, receiving what others had to give. Some gave me fitness, others opened their homes, some preached, but all gave of what they had and modeled for me who Jesus is and what the church can be.

That’s what Spiritual Fitness is about, modeling Jesus, or more specifically, writing about God. In the past I’ve done this half-and-half: half-fitness, half-spiritual truth. In writing halves I’ve missed out on something important: the whole truth. That’s the new focus of Spiritual Fitness. Communicating Jesus, and what it means to live that out with others. Completely focusing on the issue of life together and how we work out this thing called faith in Christ. For it is through the practical everydayness of living our world can change.