What if...?

I've got a question for my fellow Christians out there. If everyone else wants to peek in, you are welcome - you may find it interesting. But for those who profess Christ, here is the question:

What would happen to your life if you suddenly changed your mind and decided there is no God?

I believe there would be two major areas that could be affected: our public and our private lives.

As for our public lives, for some us it is possible that very little would change. You would keep going to work, keep hanging out with your friends, keep watching sports, keep going to movies. In fact, you may even keep going to church, saying blessings before meals, and going along with public displays of religion. After all, you've built a pretty good life, so why rock the boat? If you are happy with your job, family, and friends, you may not even tell anyone.

But how about your private life?

• I can't imagine that you would be praying or reading your Bible in private anymore - that would stop. What's the point?
• How about the motives for your actions throughout the day? Instead of doing everything for God's glory, it would be all about you. Your acts of kindness and displays of religion would be motivated by wanting to be thought of as a good person. You want people to like you, so you are nice.
• What about your thought patterns? Instead of thinking about Jesus and his love for you, you would be thinking about the mundane issues of life. Every waking thought would be about what's going on in the moment - your job, your date, the movie you're watching, the video game you're playing. No thoughts of how it fits into a bigger purpose.

Now, when I read back over that list, I have to ask myself another question: am I living like that already?

• Do I set aside time to pray, study the Scriptures, and spend time getting to know my Creator? And if I do, is it out of obligation, or is it because I love him and can't wait to get to know him better?
• Do I do what I do out of self-interest (including to be liked and thought of as nice)? Or do I regularly think of God's glory and how I can bring honor to him?
• How much do I really set my mind on things above, and how much do I get caught up in the rat race?

There is a term for the person who lives like that: a functional atheist. Looking like a believer but functioning like an atheist. He professes belief in God and faith in Jesus, and his public life looks pretty darn good. But his private life shows it to be a sham. The fact that God exists makes no real difference in his life. Even though he may look like a believer, if he looks really hard at his own heart he'll see that it's empty and void.

Jesus had a word for functional atheists:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ [public displays of devotion] And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’"

- Jesus in Matthew 7: 21-23 (NASB, note in brackets mine)

That's no way to live. I think it's time for us to get in or out of the boat. A life full of meaning while serving the living God...or living for ourselves.

Your choice. My choice. Let's get to it.

Real

So did you hear about Nebraska Coach Bo Pilini's profane rant about Cornhusker fans? If you follow college football at all, of course you did. Now, while I like to provide media links and embedded files for illustration, I don't think so this time. The language is way over the top, and so is his temper. If you haven't heard it and want to find it, I'm sure you can.

Let me say up front that I think the release of the recording was an unfair thing to do and obviously timed to embarrass him after a huge loss to UCLA. Nebraska fans are not happy with him. But the recording was made at a time when Coach Pelini thought he was in private, and it was two years ago.

Two years ago? A fair point. In private? Not so fast, my friend.

Authenticity. It is so lacking today. We wear so many masks - one for our family, one for our church friends, one for our golfing buddies, one for our co-workers...I could go on and on. We are so skilled at letting people see who we want them to see.

We ask for prayer from some people, and try to show we are confident and self-reliant in front of others.

We watch our language around our religious friends and curse like a sailor in the locker room.

We thank God for our meal...when we are with others who do the same.

We watch our diet around people that we know will challenge us about gluttony, and then sneak off to eat a double cheeseburger as soon as they're gone.

And so on. You could probably add a dozen examples.

The fact is, we are expert mask wearers. And Jesus had a word for it, one that literally meant "an actor in a play." Hypocrite.

It's really the only thing that he chewed people out about. He hung out with sinners, tax collectors, partiers, and prostitutes. He shared God's love with them and invited them to leave their party and join the great banquet of the King. But the hypocrites? Boom!

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are!

  “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity." (Matthew 23:15, 25-28)

Like I said...BOOM!

I think Jesus would say the thing Bo Pilini needs to learn from this is to be the same person in private that he is in public. To be authentic. But more importantly, that is what he would say to me. I need to be one person - the same person in private, around my family, around my friends, around my co-workers. To not hide my faults, or the things I think you wouldn't approve of. Authentic, the good and the bad, not some image that I want people to like.

Real.

Are you for real??

We've all asked this question, right?  It means "Is that really true?".  It is pretty much synonymous with "Are you serious?"...or "Are you kidding me?"...or "Seriously?"  But its literal meaning is a deeper question -- one that strikes at the heart of who I am.

This hit me square between the eyes yesterday morning at church.  I was attending a service at Calvary Baptist in Tuscaloosa.  After some awesome praise music, the pastor said something like this (I wish I could remember the exact words): "It's our goal that you see someone from Calvary, they're the same person no matter where you run into them."

Wow!  What a tremendous picture of Christ that would be for the world.  Imagine someone seeing you at work.  At the ball game.  With your family at home.  At a concert.  With your friends on Friday night.  At church.  And no matter where they encounter you, they see an authentic person living life without pretense or a shred of hypocrisy.  A fellowship of people like that would be so attractive that everyone would want to be a part of it.

For you see, we all expect masks.  And we are sick of them.  We know that we have a face for our friends, a face for our family, a face for Sunday morning...even an online face for facebook and twitter.  Jesus used the word "hypocrite" which was not meant to be an insult...it was simply the word for "actor".  He was talking about living your life as if you are an actor on a stage, playing a part.  Which is no way to live.  Which is why we consider it a derogatory term.

The concept is all through our culture.  A key song in Phantom of the Opera (where a mask is almost a character in itself) is sung by the chorus at the opening of the second act.  It says, in part:

Masquerade!  Paper faces on parade.  Masquerade!
Hide your face, so the world will never find you!
Masquerade!  Every face a different shade.  Masquerade!
Look around - there's another mask behind you!

Yep, it's all around us.

This is the beauty of the life Christ brings us.  When we connect with the source of life, we can live the way we were intended to.  We don't have to pretend.  It's so awesome to know God wants to know ME!  Not some image that I've created because I think it's what he wants.  The real me, warts and all.  and then he wants to transform the real me into the likeness of his Son.  Amazing!

One final thought:  God wants us to help each other on this journey.  We can't do it alone.  And the only way that will happen is if we are real with each other.  If I go to church and put on my church mask, or act differently around my Christian friends than I do other places, those masks will keep me from being what I was meant to.  I can't say it nearly as well as Casting Crowns, so take a listen:



Are you for real??