Bjcorbin's Blog

1.    Impatience:  One of the most prominent features of western culture is the ongoing quest to make everything faster and more convenient.  Things like, stopping at toll booths, standing in line at a fast food counter or even writing on a piece of paper, are quickly becoming passé.  Unfortunately, these “advances” also have the net effect of making us less tolerant for anything that isn’t convenient or instantly gratifying.  This is problematic for “followers” of Christ, who are often required to wait on the Lord or be stilled by the knowledge that He is God.  It is also in direct opposition to His character, which is ultimately supposed to be our destiny.  

2.    Self Sufficiency / Stubborn Independence:  The United States was birthed in rebellion; and though most would argue that the tyranny of our early history was ample justification for it, that rebellious nature has engrained itself in our national character.  American’s are famous for their brashness and their failure to adhere to conventional thought or established wisdom.  As such, Americans seem to idolize the traits of stubborn independence and self-sufficiency.  Of course, these traits stand in stark contrast to the character that Christ presented; as He spoke of coming to the Father like little children and allowed Himself to be a lamb led to slaughter.  He said that He didn’t do anything that He didn’t see His Father do first and that apart from Him, we could do “nothing”.  That is a picture of absolute dependence, which isn’t a portrait that most Americans would want to hang on their wall.  

3.    Market Based / Consumer Driven:  Misguided ideas about evangelism have caused much of the western church to become market based and consumer driven.  This causes ministers and ministries to fashion themselves after the whims of popular demand, instead of the unchanging character of God and His Spirit.  It keeps them focused on cultural trends and marketing data, instead of on the Author and Finisher of our faith; and it transforms the church into more of a network than a family.  Watering down the gospel certainly doesn’t make it any more palatable and it absolutely diminishes its potency.

4.    Vanity / Insecurity:  To some, vanity and insecurity might seem to be almost opposites, but in truth, they go hand-in-hand.  Vanity is the exaggerated portrait that we try to paint when we fear that people would be disappointed if they could see us as we really are.  Unless a person genuinely invests their sense of identity in what God says about them, they are bound to battle the very common fear that “if you really knew me, you wouldn’t love me”.  Such deeply rooted insecurity breeds competition, jealousy, offense and results in a continual struggle for recognition, position and power.  Sadly these things are commonplace in churches across America.

5.    Comfort:  Many would say that money is the god of western culture, but I would contend that at its root, the love of money is generally motivated by a deeper love of comfort.  Though many Americans are willing to part with some amount of their money for charitable causes, I would suggest that few give to the point that it might affect their own level of comfort.  For the follower of Christ, a love of comfort turns out to be a serious spiritual handicap; as the scripture tells us that what is pleasing to the flesh is not pleasing to the spirit; and that what is pleasing to the spirit is not pleasing to the flesh.  Jesus told His followers that they would be hated for His sake and that anyone who was unwilling to take up their cross, was unfit for His kingdom.  Though we like to think of ourselves as the “Army of God”, heaven help us if the battlefield isn’t air conditioned.

In the years that I’ve endeavored to walk with the Lord, I have encountered an amazing number of people, who identify themselves as “Christians” and yet possess few (if any) of the characteristics that the Bible would use to describe a follower of Jesus Christ.  Most statistics seem to indicate that this phenomena is quite common in the United States, where the vast majority of Americans still describe themselves as “Christian” and yet adhere to a belief system that would seem to have little in common with the tenets of scripture.  As I’ve pondered this disparity, I’ve come up with a few ideas about what might motivate such people.

1.      Heritage / Tradition:  Despite popular revisionist history, a Judeo-Christian belief system was an inherent thread within the original fabric of our country and as such, it has become a part of our national heritage.  Similarly, there are many people who were raised in the “Christian tradition” (e.g. a reverence for God, trying to live by the Golden Rule, celebrating Christian holidays…), which has made it a part of their family heritage as well.  For such people, their sense of connectedness may not be as much with the person of Jesus, as it is with their family and its history.

2.      Being Good / Morals:  Most of us were raised with the idea that we should at least try to be a good/moral person; and many of us were also raised with the idea that ‘good people’ are ‘God fearing’ people.  For much of America’s history, a popular way to demonstrate such a reverence for God has been through church attendance.  For some, going to church is just what ‘good people’ do on Sundays and it lets their friends and neighbors know that they belong in that category.

3.      Being Blessed and/or Empowered:  One of the major themes of the Bible is God’s love for mankind and His abundant provision for those who belong to Him.  Undoubtedly, it is His desire for His children to live blessed and empowered lives, but our human nature has little trouble with trying to exploit that arrangement.  One can easily develop a taste for the blessings of heaven, without developing a corresponding love for the dispenser of those blessings.  In such a case, God’s role is reduced to little more than that of a divine vending machine.

4.      Being Right:  While becoming an heir to Christ’s righteousness is certainly a part of our relationship with Him, that differs dramatically from the very natural desire we have for others to view us as being ‘right’.  For those endeavoring to come out on top of every argument, having a scripture reference to back up every point can be a handy tool.  But this latter form of righteous is rooted in self-serving pride, which actually repulses God.

5.      Avoiding Hell:  No one who truly understood the implications of eternal separation from God would desire such a fate; but simply wanting to avoid hell is a far cry from knowing and loving God.  Though there are many religious practices that we can adhere to, unless they lead us into some sort of genuine relationship with the person of God, they may amount to little more than faulty fire insurance.  As it is with a bad insurance policy, by the time we figure out that we’re not covered, it’s probably already too late.

This is important because the scripture so clearly warns us that their will be people who refer to Jesus as Lord and rightfully claim to have done things in His name, who will be denied access to heaven because He never “knew” them (i.e. had a relationship with them).  The word “knew” in that passage is the same word used in Genesis, when “Adam ‘knew’ Eve” and she conceived a son.  Throughout the New Testament, there are warnings for people who profess to believe one way, but who live in a way that denies those beliefs.  Though the Western church often promotes a doctrine of inclusion, the scripture still says that “narrow is the way that leads to life” and “few find it”.

1.    When you lack self respect, people will tend to follow your lead. It seems as though people who struggle with self-respect routinely put themselves in a position to get walked on (i.e. taken advantage of, neglected, abused).  Though many folks may be willing to step over them for a while, eventually they begin to blend in with the carpet.

2.    Most arguments aren’t worth having.  It is truly rare that two people come to a conversation, with differing viewpoints and a genuine openness to consider a contrasting perspective.  Generally, we enter such discourses with our minds made up, listening only well enough to develop our next counterpoint.

3.    Often times the drive-thru isn’t the quickest path to the food.  We have become so focused on convenience in America that we’ll often take twenty minutes to go through the drive-thru, just to avoid a five minute walk to the counter.  While that might seem to be a trivial matter, it appears to be having a profound impact on generations of kids, who are being raised with the idea that everything should be quick, easy and accessible from a sitting position.

4.    It’s doubtful that anyone is really “out to get you”.  Generally, a person (and/or their circumstance) has to be of consequence before someone is willing to invest the time and energy it takes to conspire against them.  I would suggest that we are more often damaged because people aren’t considerate of our position than we are because people have made a conscious effort to hurt us.  Though this knowledge doesn’t necessarily dampen the pain, it should aid with forgiveness.

5.    Life and relationships pretty much deliver in proportion to your investment in them.  While little is generally expected of a child, the demands of life increase dramatically with age.  Those who are unwilling to work in school will undoubtedly struggle to get a good education; those who are unwilling to work at their vocation, will surely struggle to make a living; and those who are unwilling to invest themselves in relationships will most certainly struggle to be a meaningful member of a family, a community or even a team.

6.    Not everyone who agrees with you is for you and not everyone who disagrees with you is against you.  In this era of political correctness, openly disagreeing with someone is often viewed as being “intolerant” of their beliefs; but there are times when caring for a person dictates that we confront and contradict them.  Conversely, there are those who are perfectly willing to allow you to drive headlong into disaster, as long as it serves their own selfish agenda.

7.    When you keep your own score, you always feel as though you’re losing.  The problem with keeping score is that we naturally tend to under-appreciate our blessings and to have an exaggerated sense of our hardships.  Because of that, people who keep score in life generally feel as though they’re never quite being given their due.  Ultimately, it’s better to simply give our best in any given situation and to let someone else keep the scorecard.

8.    It’s worth the time to read the instructions first.  This is hard fought wisdom for most of us, especially those of the male persuasion.  But after living through a few botched projects, you begin to understand that reading through the instructions, before you begin, is generally a much more reasonable price to pay.

9.   Self pity is the first step toward self destruction.  While self pity can begin as a fairly innocuous emotion, it tends to quickly build momentum over time.  As we become focused on ourselves and our troubles, the balance in our perspective is lost; often causing a rapidly descending spiral.  While most of us would admit to throwing the occasional “pity party”, self pity is an emotion that few of us can afford to indulge for very long.

10.The best things in life cannot be held in our hands or necessarily even be seen.  A young person’s dreams are often rooted in tangible gains, like a mate, income, a career, a family, a home…  But as a person attains those kinds of things, values seem to shift from the tangible to the transcendent.  At the end of a long life, it is things like friendship, faith, love and hope that are ultimately treasured.