We were driving home from picking up the dog’s medicine and one of the umpteen churches we pass along the way had a banner out front that said “Celebrate Recovery!” There was a logo on the banner that was a jigsaw puzzle piece with a cross on it. The message here is apparently (I assume) that “Jesus is the missing piece of the puzzle” that one needs for recovering from whatever ailment was being addressed.
That, in a nutshell, is what is wrong with modern Christianity.
God is not the missing piece of the puzzle.
We have been programmed by years of American thinking to see religion as one of the many things we do. We are students, we are ballerinas, we are basketball players and mothers and vice presidents and golfers and marathon runners. We have a datebook mentality, a calendar-box mentality where everything we enjoy doing gets a little piece of time to pencil in.
That’s not the deal Jesus presented during his brief physical sojourn on Earth. That’s not the deal we’re offered in scripture.
God is not the missing piece of the puzzle.
God is the entire picture.
When Jesus said “let the dead bury the dead” he was saying “the chores of this world are no longer your focus. I am your focus.”
When Jesus said “take up your cross and follow me” he did not mean “On alternate Thursdays after work and before Pilates class and don’t forget to have your husband pick up a pizza on the way home.”
Let’s be very clear on this: If you decide you want to join Christianity so that you can be in a club that will help you solve your problems, you are going to church. You are NOT becoming a Christian.
Following Christ is different than being an American Christian. Following Christ takes the whole of you and remakes the whole of you. Anything different, anything less is something different, something much less indeed.
