This is one of my favorites, I took it from the Bebo Norman
message board...
Christianity Is For Losers
by: Jeremy Klaszus
www.relevantmagazine.com
When I changed my e-mail address to christianityisforlosers@hotmail.com,
I
found it both enjoyable and amusing to sit back and read the varied
responses from friends and family. Some people were confused. "What
kind of
e-mail address is that? Is there a deeper meaning?" Others were
offended.
"Are you calling me a loser?" Some people seemed rather concerned
about my
spiritual condition. "Are you still a Christian? Are you backsliding?"
Then
there was my aunt, who said nothing but signed her next email to me:
"A
loser, Auntie Lois."
I have to admit, I thrived on the small controversy that unfolded before
me.
I grinned when offended friends sent me emails. I quite enjoyed keeping
people in the dark. "What does it mean?" they would ask. "Think
about it,"
would be my reply. Christianity is for losers. What a stupid, irreverent
statement for a Christian to make!
Or is it?
First off, can one say the opposite, that "Christianity is NOT
for losers,"
or "Christianity is for winners?" Let's look back to the early
days of
Christianity. No, let's look to Christ Himself. In the Word, we are
given
accounts of the kind of company Jesus met with and the people He called.
Who
did He call? Who did He invest most of His time? With "good people?"
After all, that is what we would expect right about now. If Christ were
here
to day, many of us would be expecting Him to be in the company of "good
people." Many of us would look for Him right alongside Billy Graham
and Matt
Redman. Why shouldn't He be with them? They are good, Christian folk,
as am
I! Of course, we all think Jesus would want to hang out with us.
But let's take a look at who Christ did call and hang out with. A tax
collector. An adulteress. A traitor. Fishermen. A coward. This group
does
not exactly look like an unshakeable foundation for the Kingdom of God,
but
as we look closer, we see that that is precisely why He chose and used
them.
They were losers.
Because they were not good enough, only He could be. Their own miserable
condition forced them to build on something larger and stronger than
themselves. It's sad how we have fallen into the Pharisaical trap of
thinking Christianity is for good people, like us. This is a myth.
Christianity is not for good people; it never has been. Somewhere, somehow
we got confused into thinking Christianity is not for losers. This has
had
two rather large negative effects.
First of all, many people have turned away from Christ and the church
because they feel they are not good enough. They are painfully aware
of
their own inadequacy, and, in many cases, Christians only intensify
their
awareness. Thus they turn away, for the reason they are not good enough
to
be Christians. What they fail to see is "not being good enough"
is the very
first prerequisite to being a Christian. If you are good enough to be
a
Christian, then you need not become one. Indeed, you cannot. The essence
of
the Christian faith is that we fall short. We cannot bridge the gap
- the
gaping chasm between man and God. Only He can bridge it. We must realize
that, and embrace it as a foundational truth in both theology and practice.
Our righteousness truly is nothing more than filthy rags.
The second effect this myth has had is it breaks down any differentiation
between Christianity and other religions. If Christianity is for good
people, than it is nothing more than just another religion. Nothing
to sets
it apart from belief systems like Hinduism and Islam. In religion, you
get
what you deserve. True Christian teaching stakes the radical claim that
the
opposite is true! The Christian does not get the punishment that he
deserves, and he does receive that which he does not deserve! Christianity
stands in stark contrast to all other religions because of this. Grace
and
karma are like black and white. However, if our Christianity is based
on the
myth it is a belief system for good people, then the grace which we
profess
is not grace at all, but karma in disguise. It is true Christianity
is not a
religion. But man has and is able to turn it into one. We must be wary
of
that.
When asking people what they thought my email address meant, a few thought
about it and said, "You must be talking about what Christianity
has become,
with all it's rules and hypocrisy. That is for losers." No, that's
backwards. Fake, religious Christianity is for winners - people that
are
good enough and have it all together. People who think that they do
not need
grace.
But true Christianity is for failures. People who screw up, and know
it.
People who embrace grace at the risk of abusing it. People who are as
shifty
and unstable as the sand - and thus need a Rock on which to build.
It's for losers.
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