I'm meeting many people from Sikh, Muslim, and Hindu backgrounds; also conversing with some Mormons and atheists. It's not hard to notice a trend among nominal (casual, loosely committed) followers of any religion or worldview: all theological, existential, scriptural, mythical, and intellectual differences aside, they unsurprisingly overlap on a watery middle ground of humanistic post-modernism.
At some point I've heard the same basic thing from Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, and Atheists: No one ultimately knows what's on the otherside of death or has the spiritual realm sorted, so do your best to be happy, be kind to others/don't try to change anyone, and be true to whatever you do believe.
As a committed follower of Jesus, this is disturbing. It causes me to reflect and wonder what the core distinctive of my “religion” or way of life is. Why follow Jesus?
Most everyone will tell you they want the truth, but in reality they want comfort and pleasure - myself included. To self-centered humans, much of the truth is not pretty or easy to swallow. No one wants to submit and say, “God, I'm not you. Your will be done.”
The atheist who declares “there is no God” and the nominal-theist who claims to serve God (or several gods) but is actually a moralist or materialist or humanist are equally arrogant. The atheist's arrogance lies primarily in their absolute claim that God does not exist – a claim that basically positions them as God/the ultimate knower and authority. The arrogance of the nominal-theist, a Christian for example, lies in the fact that their happiness and glory are their ultimate pursuit – so instead of worshiping God, they worship themselves via material things, temporary pleasures, acts of righteousness.
Forests have been wiped out discussing such things; I'm sure I'll have more to say in future posts. For now I'll end with an excerpt from a book I just finished:
“Jesus is God coming to us in love. Sheer unadulterated, unfiltered love. Stripped of everything that could get in the way. Naked and vulnerable, hanging on a cross, asking the question, “What will you do with me?
...It's God making the first move and then waiting for our response. If you have ever given yourself to someone and had your heart broken, you know how God feels.
If you have ever given yourself to someone and found yourself waiting for their response, exposed and vulnerable, left hanging in the balance, you know how God feels.” - from Sex God by Rob Bell, p105
And that's the distinctive. Jesus humbly initiates a love relationship with us. But it only matters if we respond and submit to the lover, His humility and vulnerability compelling us to lay down our pride and worship Him.
