Going Through the Motions

There's a song on the radio that has meant alot to me lately, once I took the time to crank up the radio and listen to the words.  Here's something to think about:

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna last one more day
Without your all-consuming
Passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions.

My early years of following Christ were started with a bang in which three men discipled me.  I felt the call to revolutionary living and saw these men regularly living that way.  Through them I learned to pray, read my Bible, discuss and debate Scripture, worship passionately, share Jesus openly, serve people who can't return the favor, and much more.  Eventually they moved away but a great youth pastor came into my life.  During these times I was new to church and new to serving Christ.  Sometimes it seemed like I stood out among my peers as a bit more radical in my faith than even the other kids in church.  Eventually though, like everyone else, I learned how to "play church" and go through the motions too.

I wish I could say that I grew out of that, but the truth is, once you learn how to go through the motions (like riding a bike) you don't forget.  Whereas we usually think of playing church as consciously pretending to be something we know we are not, I think the more common drama is deceiving ourselves into believing that we're genuine when we are in reality just a shadow of what we were called to be.

With apologies to Shakespeare [bracketed text mine], we could say it this way

[Church] life is but a walking shadow that struts and frets it's hour upon the stage.

I for one don't want to be a "religious functionary" as my friend Asher calls it.  I want substance instead of shadow, reality instead of reflection.  I know how to strut and fret and to make the "sound and fury" of ecclesiastical performance, but what I really want is to know Jesus passionately and to give everything to Him.

Returning to a simplistic Christian church model is one step in our journey.  Another is rediscovering the power of basic spiritual disciplines.  Awakening to the idea that the church is intended to be a living organism, an organic movement, not a business or a social club, is another vital step.

There are, however, motions that we should go through, which I will discuss another time...