I have an adult daughter. She's awesome--smart and strong and very cool, in my opinion. She's dating a really nice guy. I'm glad about that.
Because I've wondered, in the past, what I would do if she started dating someone who wasn't nice--who was, you know, scary. The kind of guy who would tell her that his love for her was undying, who would offer to do anything and everything for her, who would promise he'd never abandon her, who would claim his love was so deep and profound and unending that if she ever left him he would come after her and set her on fire and burn her alive because he could never ever tolerate the idea of her loving someone else.
Actually, I know what I'd do. I'd tell her to run like hell.
So why are Christians so confused when people don't want anything to do with our faith? Too many people out there still think Christianity is merely "If you don't love Jesus, God will burn you in hell forever. And there's no escaping it." Of course people are gonna run. If it's crazy for a human, it's crazy for God. Even omnipotence can't turn "psychopath" into "righteous."
Problem is, too many of us Christians get stuck if you ask us why we are Christian. We can't come up with anything more profound than, "Because I want to go to heaven when I die." For people outside the faith, that pretty much equals "God will burn me in hell if I don't." Basically, we're saying "loving" Jesus is our insurance that God won't track us down and set us on fire.
C'mon, Christians, be honest: This is not a compelling reason to love God. It may be a compelling reason to fear God. But it is not a reason for love. Ever. And in my bible, the main thing God seeks from us is Love. (Yes, God also desires respect and awe--you know, honesty in acknowledging the fact that God is God and we're not. But not fear--not in the cringing/ducking/hiding sense.)
So we've got to come up with a better explanation of why we're Christian. And yeah, I think there are a lot of good reasons for following Jesus. Much better ones than fire insurance.
More on that next week.
