Barbaric
More from The Barbarian Way...
Perhaps the tragedy of our time is that such an overwhelming number of us who declare Jesus as Lord have become overly domesticated - or, if you will civilized. We have lost the simplicty of our earlier faith. Beyond that, we have lost the passion and power of that raw, untamed, and primal faith.

Christianity as a civilized religion claims to have a group plan negotiated with God. Everybody gets the same package. And, of course, the package is always the premium plan - get rich, get comfortable, get secure, get safe, get well when you get God. The result and proof of faith are that you get to live a life without risk, which is ironic when you realize that for the early church, faith was a risky business.

Andy Stanley has a great sermon on the heart. In it, he brings up 3 kids and says, "I'm going to give away an Apple Video iPod." He gives each kid a package and they open them. Sarah (I can't recall their exact names) opens hers and it is a video iPod, Bill opens his and there is a $100 gift certificate to the Apple store (not enough for a video iPod but close) and John opens his and finds an apple. That is it. Just an apple (the kind you eat). Andy sends them back off stage and then talks about jealousy. He says Bill and John might well decide to turn on Sarah because she got the iPod. But as Andy points out, "who should they be mad at, Sarah or me?"

Life isn't fair and we tend to shake our fists at God because He handed us a different package than Sarah. Life comes so easy to her. She works 1/2 as hard and earns 3x what I make. She is skinny. Her kids make straight A's and are the star of the athletic teams. She lives in the 10,000 sq foot house...paid for. "God, it ain't fair!" we shout.

Nowhere does God promise to make life fair. God gives each of us our own individual package. As the Barbarian says, the church is at fault by preaching the message of "success". It is one of the reasons I struggle to listen to some pastors - the message is always one of prosperity, peace, success. Most Christians struggle with modern life because we all want one thing, "a worry-free life".

God doesn't call all of us to sameness. The calls are all different. Some calls are barbaric. Some are called to be like John - a barbarian - a man who ate locusts and wild honey and wore clothes made from camel's hair. Some are called to chunk tradition and expectations and convention to embrace the call of the wild.

Soar.