Warning - Emily Rant Ahead!
Don't you hate it when you are so right about something and NO ONE IS LISTENING! Well, welcome to my life.
For years now, I have told people curious about my faith that you can't half way do this thing called Christianity. Oh you can try and put up a fairly convincing facade IF you buy the right bumper stickers, nauseating t-shirts, and latest big seller in the book Christian book kiosk at Wal-mart. You know the ones filled with fuzzy feel good pop psychology with a few of the Bible's pretty parts thrown around it for decoration.
But the truth is a little religion will DO NOTHING BUT MAKE YOU MISERABLE! Let's be real, playing the game is tiresome. You spend all your time saying no to the stuff you really want to do and trying to do all the things "those religious folks" think you should be doing. Nothing like playing "keeping up with the Jones'" and calling it faith.
In addition, you get the "privilege" of carrying around a ton of guilt and condemnation that YOU CANT DO ANYTHING ABOUT. To try to alleviate some of your discomfort, you invariably start throwing your guilt on others - condemning them for not being a good enough Christian and all the while covering your envy with self-righteous snobbery. What's worse, it's a game we can all get pretty good at and so we keep it up because we think we are winning.
Why? Because we are comparing ourselves to our neighbors. We measure our righteousness by the guy on TV, the drunk down the street, and the single mom with three baby daddies in question. Compared to those folks, we are winners and it feels good to be a winner. And isn't that what life is all about winning?
Sorry to break it to you, but no. In the Christian faith, it's about losing. It's about losing our sense of entitlement, our superior attitude, our fear, and our eventually even our lives the way Christ showed us as he walked this earth.
But you can't do any of this if you are just dabbling in faith. It doesn't work because dabblers are focused on what they are doing and how well they are doing it. Faith, real faith, is more concerned about what God is doing and how you can join in what he's doing.
Real faith is fueled by relationship and empowered by his presence. Dabblers don't have that - all they get is a list cold, hard, impossible rules. Is it any wonder so many are embittered towards Christians when all they've seen are dabblers? And all they've experienced is the weight of societal demands?
The joy of our faith is the privilege to know God, to walk in relationship with the Creator of the Universe! I don't care who you are if you think about the ramifications of that statement, and you aren't made of stone, that is exciting. If you choose to make that relationship a reality, you change and the rules become guidelines and beacons for how to chase this thing that has brought you freedom.
Yes, freedom! And the drudgery of shallow religion slips away.
But now, you don't have to take my word for it. It seems some real scientists and researchers have figured this out. Check out the article in the link below.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/frenchrevolution/2014/07/16/when-is-religion-terrible-for-marriage-when-theres-only-a-little-of-it/
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