Funny Joke Man!

I am weird. Or am I normal? Is it normal to be weird? I think it is.

There has to be something to write about concerning these last few days. Has to be...

So basically, around 8-9 months ago, Jeremiah and I stopped being friends. This happened because he was completely frustrated and sick of shallow relationships, and I was busy chasing after so many. He just wanted real ones. The big, loud social gatherings were killing him. Everyone at these gatherings were, for the most part, Christians, and talked a great deal about "being real" and admitting they were broken and needed Jesus and stuff. It was like we all agreed that Jesus was God and stuff without saying it and went on incessantly making Borat jokes or talking about our friend who maybe had sex with this girl and how it's not very good but yet we talk and laugh about it like it's not so bad. Even worse, our conversation would occasionally drift towards God or Jesus or something Paul wrote to a New Testament church and some people would act interested and vaguely excited and maybe even contribute to the conversation.

These types of conversations almost always make people feel really good. Because, after all, talking about faith means you have faith, right? Rambling about love and forgiveness implies that, well, the rambler loves and forgives. You see how this makes us feel so very good about ourselves?

I did this. A lot. I even wrote blogs about God and prayed for people and, when my Holy Spirit flame was lit bright enough, I would get on my knees and tell God that my life was His, and for Him to take me wherever He pleased. I had gotten so excited about the ability to be "real." I guess you could hardly blame me.

In high school, I knew that a number of my fellow FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) officers drank more beer than the non-FCA officers at our school, just like they knew that I was messing around with my girlfriend and that I was arrogant and self-righteous and hurtful. Understand that when I say I knew or they knew this isn't hypothetical or guesswork or "I heard..." It was common knowledge! And we were supposed to be imitating Jesus! Thus, having friends who I could talk to about my struggles with girls and my insecurities and my pride was very neat and felt very right. The problem with all this is that it is a very comfortable place to stop.

We (when we are weekly or bi-weekly confessing our brokenness to friends) are different enough (Hey! Nobody talks about struggling with porn! We do!) to feel slightly uncomfortable when around "the world" (drinking, partying, and other condemned worldly crap), and this makes discomfort makes us comfortable in our little Christian realm. It's like if you're kind of weird then church will make you feel good (but try not to be too weird, like, don't admit that you struggle with homosexuality or anything). A lot of today's churches are asking their members to accept Jesus and gain accountability, all while massaging their shoulders and patting their backs.

Am I making sense?

We have twisted Romans 12:2 around so much and effed it up to say what we want it to say. I'm not trying to sound smart, really. I hate it when people do that. But this was just in the footnote of my Bible, so I'll share it. When it says "Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world..." my ESV Bible tells me that "world" is really "age" in Greek. For so long, I was made to believe that "world" meant all those who were not Christians or all those who did not make their way to a pew on Sundays. Their behavior can be characterized by loud, crude jokes, excessive drinking, lots of sex, and no regard for the moral consequences of doing any of the above. But when I see that "world" really means "age," I see that the church (especially in Nashville) can be sucked into the "patterns of this age" just as easily as the unholy. I see that we are not to conform to the patterns of the church, who betrayed Jesus and conformed to the age many ages ago.

Shane Claiborne called it "cheap grace." Jeremiah called it "shallow friendship," and I am experiencing the cheapness and the ease that is Christianity. After all, it is very easy to stand in shallow water, right? So it is easy and comfortable to exist in shallow relationships. I am after relationships that really do sacrifice and give and don't expect in return. Relationships that encourage and support and don't push an agenda. Relationships defined by listening and showing up and being there and knowing.

Jeremiah said something very beautiful about this at church this morning.

I contend that it is not enough to accept Jesus. It might be enough if we're accepting the real Jesus, but I'm afraid this isn't happening. I realize this isn't groundbreaking or anything, but we're preaching a Jesus who has blessed America and loves the USA and mysteriously guards our troops and guides their bullets to kill. We're preaching a Jesus who has given us money so we could have nice things and "give to those who don't have" and so we can go to college, get a nice job, make a lot of money, be safe and comfy, and start the process over! We preach a Jesus who doesn't really mean it when he says "Sell all you have and give it to the poor," just like he doesn't mean it when he says, "Love your enemies." Oh, he also did not mean anything by it when he said to live as a servant, or to live as if all of us were our mothers and brothers (Matt. 12:48). He probably didn't mean what he said about dropping anything to follow him (Luke 9:57), either. He didn't mean any of that. Duh.

He wants you to be comfortably uncomfortable, living with confession-booth relationships and accountability. He also wants you to be normal, and not tell your friends anything weird or scary. Like, that you're an alien or something.