Just a quick thought for tonight before bed.  I was down at Borders tonight looking for a couple of books that I didn’t end up finding but I was struck by how many books were in the Christian isle trying to sell Jesus as the answer to all your problems.  Somehow, apparently, it has been recently discovered that Jesus decided to get into the diet and self-help book business.  Now, I don’t want to sound like I’m discounting the story of anyone who found Christ and as a result stopped doing drugs/swearing/watching bad movies/whatever, but I was kind of annoyed by how many of these books were there.  Part of why I always feel awkward when someone asks how they can pray for me or if I have any prayer requests is that I feel like my faults and sins are so petty compared to the pain and suffering I see in the world.  Maybe I could ask that God give me the motivation to take up running or going to the gym but is that really more important than praying for the people of Darfur?  I’ve been listening to a series of podcasts about what the emerging church movement is and I’ve been doing some thinking about it and one of the things that has begun to annoy me about “the church” is how much we have made Christianity about ourselves.  Yes God does know the number of hairs on our head and such, but I really don’t think he cares about our bum knee or whether we should cook dinner or stop at McDonald’s.  I think we have turned Jesus into a pill that we prescribe for the world as a cure all for every little boo boo in our lives.  But I don’t think that is what God had in mind when He sent His Son.  One of the things I like about Vintage Faith and the emerging church movement as a whole is that it is restoring the awe and fear of God to the Christian faith.  Instead of God being a 24/7 customer service line, God is God, the Creator, the I Am.  He is to be praised and worshiped and thanked for every day we live, not used like some holy bottle of snake oil.

Filed under: life by Jonathan Assink