This week I laid out a pretty heavy challenge to all of us, and it was heavy for me too. It’s something that I have to keep tabs on, keep checking myself to make sure I’m not slipping. I’m talking about Distracted Christianity. It’s when we get our eyes off the road, off our Rabbi Jesus. It’s so easy to get distracted with life, with careers, with finances – whatever! But none of it is as important as the ridiculously important job of being a follower of Jesus.
Throughout the years, we’ve been called a lot of different names. The one that’s seemed to stick is “Christian.” In recent years, some people have tried to escape the baggage of that name by using different terms or different names. One phrase I hear get thrown around a lot is “Christ Followers.” It’s sort of the same but different enough for some folks, I guess.
Whenever I think about this controversy over the name “Christian,” I can’t help but come back to this quote attributed to Mahatma Ghandi: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
That sentence may offend you. I think it offended me the first time I read it. But it’s easier to swallow when you realize he’s not talking about the truly committed Christians. He’s talking about Distracted Christians.
Like distracted driving, Distracted Christianity keeps our attention off of what’s really important…what’s ridiculously important. It keeps us from being radically transformed by the person of Jesus Christ.
We can put so much energy defending our version of “right” that we can lose sight of who we are. As a result it is very easy to create a form of hybrid religiosity that seems very different from what we read about Jesus in the New Testament. Instead of being transformed into Christ-likeness, we trade it in for something that’s a little like Christ, but different enough to keep our friends and coworkers happy. It’s different enough from Jesus to keep people from making fun or even persecuting us. It’s different enough from what we know of Christ to keep us in the game and climbing the ladder of success. It’s different enough to allow us to keep hating those who hate us, to keep hoarding what we think is ours, to keep living with little sins infiltrating our hearts.
It’s close enough to Jesus to pass a religious test, but different enough to keep us from being rejected by the world.
We don’t need to be close enough to Christ-likeness. We don’t need a religion that is like Christ, a little bit. We need a transformation that makes us like Christ completely!
The name “Christian” was first used by outsiders, by unbelievers to describe the followers of Jesus. They saw something different in us and had to come up with a whole new vocabulary. They recognized the transformation was so complete that a new thing was now on board. And it required a new team name, along with new team logo, uniform, colors and slogans – the whole thing! They realized something – and someone – was different.
Do we still look different? Sound different? Act different? Or are we so tragically integrated into the American way of life that we don’t make any difference at all?
The invitation “follow me” that Jesus laid down to his disciples 2000 years ago is still valid today. And it’s an invitation to transformation. Are you ready for it? What is it in your heart that needs to be healed? What has been distracting you from what’s ridiculously important? And how are you going to get your eyes back on the road?
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