Spiritual Journey, Part II
Mar. 14th, 2006 08:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greybetaWhen I was in the fifth or sixth grade, WWJD bracelets became immensely popular. “What Would Jesus Do?” became seen everywhere. It started infiltrating all sorts of merchandise, from earrings to t-shirts. It was “cool” to wear a WWJD bracelet.
I wore mine just like everybody else did. Mine was a blue bracelet with black letters. I wore it everywhere, and there several times when I had to look on the playground for it after it slipped off my wrist when I was running around with my friends.
But it was just a fad. The market became oversaturated with the WWJD label and there were too many people trying to capitalize on it. As quickly as the fad grew among the youth of the Bible Belt, it even more quickly died out.
Yet, I always wore my WWJD bracelet. I wore it through junior high, high school, and even the first two years of college. It was a convenient conversation starter, as I explained to many an international student why I wore that bracelet.
One day, though, I lost it for good. I was running in the middle of a rainstorm and lost it somewhere on campus. There was no way I was going to find it. I was a bit sad, but then I remembered something.
We once had a speaker at the Baptist Student Union who asked if anyone still wore a WWJD bracelet. I was the only one to raise my hand. The speaker was a bit surprised, but then he made a point that Christians cannot be marked by something physical.
I then realized that people were very surprised to find out that I was a Christian. To live the life of a disciple of Christ, people should be able to see the one that you reveal inside yourself. People weren’t seeing the one in me…they were seeing me.
Me, me, me. I was living a selfish life, one that did not indicate that I had made Jesus Christ the Lord of my Life. There was a disconnect that I had to resolve.
However, as a heretic, I have to ask, “Is that so bad?” What is so bad about being comfortable in who I am? I feel tension when I try to say that I believe Jesus is the only way to heaven, yet I feel relaxed when I say that Jesus is my Lord and my Savior but that there are still other ways to heaven.
Has Satan deceived me?
I wore mine just like everybody else did. Mine was a blue bracelet with black letters. I wore it everywhere, and there several times when I had to look on the playground for it after it slipped off my wrist when I was running around with my friends.
But it was just a fad. The market became oversaturated with the WWJD label and there were too many people trying to capitalize on it. As quickly as the fad grew among the youth of the Bible Belt, it even more quickly died out.
Yet, I always wore my WWJD bracelet. I wore it through junior high, high school, and even the first two years of college. It was a convenient conversation starter, as I explained to many an international student why I wore that bracelet.
One day, though, I lost it for good. I was running in the middle of a rainstorm and lost it somewhere on campus. There was no way I was going to find it. I was a bit sad, but then I remembered something.
We once had a speaker at the Baptist Student Union who asked if anyone still wore a WWJD bracelet. I was the only one to raise my hand. The speaker was a bit surprised, but then he made a point that Christians cannot be marked by something physical.
I then realized that people were very surprised to find out that I was a Christian. To live the life of a disciple of Christ, people should be able to see the one that you reveal inside yourself. People weren’t seeing the one in me…they were seeing me.
Me, me, me. I was living a selfish life, one that did not indicate that I had made Jesus Christ the Lord of my Life. There was a disconnect that I had to resolve.
However, as a heretic, I have to ask, “Is that so bad?” What is so bad about being comfortable in who I am? I feel tension when I try to say that I believe Jesus is the only way to heaven, yet I feel relaxed when I say that Jesus is my Lord and my Savior but that there are still other ways to heaven.
Has Satan deceived me?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-03-15 06:52 am (UTC)(note: this is from the perspective of one Christian to another, both assuming that man is inherently sinful, and both fully versed in Scripture :-))
John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus came full of grace and truth. The problem is, people tend to take both parts to their extremes. The people of only "truth" tend to be legalistic to the point that behaving like a Christian, and thinking like a Christian, and pretending to be Christian (whatever that means) becomes more important than actually being a Christian: that is, actually following Christ, and loving above all else, like he loved. When you hear most non-Christians talk about "those Christians" I believe they are referring to the legalistic Christians. the don't-smoke-don't-drink-don't-party-don't-cuss people. Oh, hey, they're the kind of Christian that run Bob Jones University :-P.
The people of only "grace," however, use the love of God as a way to justify all manner of sin, and obscure the fundamentally offensive Truth. You SHOULD be bothered by the message of Christ (which some people might try to tell you is all about "love." Phooey! "love" hurts according to the message of Christ!). The natural, sinful man inside all of us should and will be repelled by this truth, because it is the Truth, and it is good, and we are evil. (Of course, if you are of the opinion that men are all fundamentally good, then such argument doesn't even apply :-))
So... how to balance the two? Grace and truth? For as truth came with grace, neither can grace alter truth. I think every Christian is still trying to figure that out. Is grace (love) so important that it means even though Christ is a way to heaven, he isn't the only way, because God is such a loving God that he would totally want good, non-Christian, but "god"-fearing people enter his kingdom? (This brings up an interesting issue, i think, which is... if Christ isn't the only way, is he a "better" way, or just as equally valid as anything other? and if every other way was totally valid, then why would God come and suffer like He did and make such a big deal out of it, too? and why the heck would God have so many ways to him and make it so confusing for all of us?)
Well, aside from that rambling, do you think you secretly take pride in calling yourself a heretic? as in it sets you apart? makes you "different" from the other boring Christians (who all believe that Christ is The Way and are just too culturally dense to see how there could be other ways...). I sometimes get the impression that you calling yourself a heretic is a way to make you feel somehow on top of the game of religion :-D. but i might be wrong--please correct me if so!
God bless! have a lovely night!
no subject
Date: 2006-03-15 10:40 pm (UTC)pathetictwo cents:[rant]One of my greatest pet peeves as an opinion editor are people who are too timid to be confident in their own opinions, always qualifying it with "maybe" or "probably." If you want me to respect your opinion, never ever call your own opinion pathetic.[/rant]
So... how to balance the two? Grace and truth? For as truth came with grace, neither can grace alter truth. I think every Christian is still trying to figure that out. Is grace (love) so important that it means even though Christ is a way to heaven, he isn't the only way, because God is such a loving God that he would totally want good, non-Christian, but "god"-fearing people enter his kingdom? (This brings up an interesting issue, i think, which is... if Christ isn't the only way, is he a "better" way, or just as equally valid as anything other? and if every other way was totally valid, then why would God come and suffer like He did and make such a big deal out of it, too? and why the heck would God have so many ways to him and make it so confusing for all of us?)
I never thought of it like this before. I'll have to chew on this one awhile. ^_^
Well, aside from that rambling, do you think you secretly take pride in calling yourself a heretic? as in it sets you apart? makes you "different" from the other boring Christians (who all believe that Christ is The Way and are just too culturally dense to see how there could be other ways...). I sometimes get the impression that you calling yourself a heretic is a way to make you feel somehow on top of the game of religion :-D. but i might be wrong--please correct me if so!
In some ways, you are right. I take pride in myself, and if I am a heretic, I take pride in being a heretic. But as Proverbs says, "Pride comes before destruction, a haughty step before the fall."
In reading apologetics I did get bored reading the same thing over and over. Place your faith in God and His Word. But what does that mean?
To me, there's always this disconnect between doing good and believing Jesus is the only way to heaven. We are always fond of saying that good works alone cannot earn one's way to heaven. "Good" people are not going to go to heaven. Or should I say that they were never "good" to begin with?