The Song Beneath me
This song was used by the speaker at Freedomize this evening, and I was stunned at how exact of an image it paints of Christians and Christianity. "Always willing, never able." That to me is the definition of modern Christianity. Am I very much a victim of this? More so than many I think.
How many churches want to feed the world, get rid of poverty, help the homeless, and much more? We set out with the best of intentions, but our 'misitry' is so boxed by our complacency. Again, I'm convicting myself as I write this. We are so happy to be dissatisfied. We pray for these big things, never expecting anything, and make a bigger deal of it, when only a portion is given. If you're a Christian reading this, how many of our personal prayers are like this: "I pray for the city of Toronto," "I pray for so-and-so," or "I raise up such-and-such." What exactly are we praying for, and what exactly do we expect? The words "I pray for" seem just as meaningless in prayer as saying to a friend in conversation, "I'm talking to you about this person" and then saying nothing more on the subject.
Perhaps that's a little too critical. There is the implied meaning that when we pray "I pray for..." we're actually saying something like: "give good things to..." or "help out with this..." or "comfort this person..." or "bring 'revival' to..." (I'll leave the topic of 'revival' to another day, but bring it up here only as an accurate example). So we are thinking that we are actually praying something specific, and not just blowing our wind at God.
But let me focus on the one example I brought up. A church I went to a few times in Toronto seemed to weekly pray the words: "We pray for the city of Toronto," and left it at that. Now the implied meaning was that God would 'move' in Toronto and bring all the things that come when God moves, revival, blessings, repentance, and a host of other 'Christianese' terms.
So did they actually expect revival? Or repentance? Come on. We pray it expecting God to do nothing. It would seem impossible that God would ACTUALLY listen to this, fix all of the problems in Toronto, and by next week we see 4 million people in churches in the city. Not this IS impossible, but certainly to us it seems that way.
And since we expect God to do nothing, we are overjoyed when He decides to give us more than our expectations, perhaps we get a new member at church, or the collection goes a little better than expected the next week.
Which brings me back to the line that moved me so much. "Always willing, never able." That's me to a 'T'. I write this, knowing that the response to what I've written is to actually expect God to do things (becuase He said He would, if we asked Him), to actually help other people, and love them with everything I have. And I'm terrible at this. And I don't feel like I'm the only one. People are justified when they make harsh comments regarding the 'good' the church has done. That's a terrible thing, and it shouldn't be like that.
How many churches want to feed the world, get rid of poverty, help the homeless, and much more? We set out with the best of intentions, but our 'misitry' is so boxed by our complacency. Again, I'm convicting myself as I write this. We are so happy to be dissatisfied. We pray for these big things, never expecting anything, and make a bigger deal of it, when only a portion is given. If you're a Christian reading this, how many of our personal prayers are like this: "I pray for the city of Toronto," "I pray for so-and-so," or "I raise up such-and-such." What exactly are we praying for, and what exactly do we expect? The words "I pray for" seem just as meaningless in prayer as saying to a friend in conversation, "I'm talking to you about this person" and then saying nothing more on the subject.
Perhaps that's a little too critical. There is the implied meaning that when we pray "I pray for..." we're actually saying something like: "give good things to..." or "help out with this..." or "comfort this person..." or "bring 'revival' to..." (I'll leave the topic of 'revival' to another day, but bring it up here only as an accurate example). So we are thinking that we are actually praying something specific, and not just blowing our wind at God.
But let me focus on the one example I brought up. A church I went to a few times in Toronto seemed to weekly pray the words: "We pray for the city of Toronto," and left it at that. Now the implied meaning was that God would 'move' in Toronto and bring all the things that come when God moves, revival, blessings, repentance, and a host of other 'Christianese' terms.
So did they actually expect revival? Or repentance? Come on. We pray it expecting God to do nothing. It would seem impossible that God would ACTUALLY listen to this, fix all of the problems in Toronto, and by next week we see 4 million people in churches in the city. Not this IS impossible, but certainly to us it seems that way.
And since we expect God to do nothing, we are overjoyed when He decides to give us more than our expectations, perhaps we get a new member at church, or the collection goes a little better than expected the next week.
Which brings me back to the line that moved me so much. "Always willing, never able." That's me to a 'T'. I write this, knowing that the response to what I've written is to actually expect God to do things (becuase He said He would, if we asked Him), to actually help other people, and love them with everything I have. And I'm terrible at this. And I don't feel like I'm the only one. People are justified when they make harsh comments regarding the 'good' the church has done. That's a terrible thing, and it shouldn't be like that.
posted by Barron C @ 12:25 a.m.
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