The following is the book description of my first published work (2006), “I’m Bored With Christianity”:
Are you bored with Christianity?
– Bored, /bord/ adjective = weary being unoccupied or lacks interest in one’s current activity: He was bored with the religious routine.
– Christianity, /kris chee ‘a nit ee/ noun = 1. a world religion based on the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. 2. religious routine: She was bored with Christianity.
Many people, today, are fleeing from Christianity. Because the boredom disease, which seems to have plagued its members, is running rampant inside the church, many search elsewhere for the love and hope that Jesus stood for. Maybe it’s you that has become bored with Christianity. This book was written with the intent of rediscovering, not just another world religion; rather, the heart of God defined by a life that requires a revolutionary and radical leap down the path led by Jesus Christ. This book was written to encourage a life lived outside of the “religious routine” and into a life of mystery, excitement, and redemption.
I love our church, and nothing against our teachers (ironically, I’m one of them), but, sitting in church this morning I can’t help but feel that there’s gotta be more than just sitting here listening to a good feel message. I can’t help but feel, as time goes on, that this Christianity thing (as we know of it specifically in the Western world) is somewhat opposite of what Jesus intended. And, even still, I can’t help but wonder if the production of our Sunday services is exactly what Jesus didn’t die for.
I was reading Scripture this past week and felt like I was going nowhere with it. You know what I’m talking about…those moments when you read one line of Scripture accidentally three times over. I couldn’t help but feel, “This again?” It was as if I was eating a full buffet of overly dried steak and stale french fries mixed with rubbery chicken and bland ice cream and I kept going back even though I couldn’t fit anymore food in my belly.
And then I came across John 5.
Jesus said, in verse 39, “ You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”
It was in that moment, to my surprise, that the Holy Spirit told me to stop reading the Bible. Not forever, of course, but in that moment. It was then that the Holy Spirit reminded me of why Jesus came in the first place. See, Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He came to bring life to the lifeless. Jesus came to bring hope to the hopeless. He came to shine light on those living in darkness.
There’s a direct connection between what we learn in Scripture and how we live out our lives of faith. We can read all the Bible we want and attend Sunday services every week, but if we don’t live out our lives in Jesus everyday, bringing His light and life to the dark and the dead, then there’s a deadened reality that’ll start to surface in us. God has called His followers to be a blessing.
I’m wondering if our expression of faith in Jesus (in the West) has been relegated to an internal focus that sets itself up to be an exclusive religious club. I’m wondering if we, in the name of religion, have built barriers with the unbelieving world, instead of building bridges that creates pathways for the light of God to shine on darkness. I’m wondering if, in the name of being “good” Christians, we have built a machine opposite of what Jesus meant when He said, “It’s not the healthy who needs a doctor.”
I’m wondering what we did with the movement of Jesus.
How about you?
Let’s talk.
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