“Dream big, accomplish big.”
“Work hard enough and you can do anything.”
Motivational speak… we’ve heard it for many years now and many have believed the hype. But are these motivating phrases true? Can you achieve your dreams if you just believe and work hard? In a word… NO. If these thoughts were actually true we’d have at least 256 teams in the NFL, every golfer would daily break par, there would be no waiters or waitresses in Hollywood and Charles Barkley would make sense. The fact of the matter is that most people don’t live out their dreams… and a majority of the people who have worked very hard to follow their dreams, have given up because even after that tremendous effort, they failed. Not everyone has the kismet of Keanu Reeves.
I realize that this stance is unpopular in today’s culture; after all we live in a society that puts more importance on having a positive self image than in having an accurate self image. But the self indulgence that accompanies self importance is killing our society and it needs to stop… especially within the Christian Church.
Walk into pretty much any “modern” church today and here’s what you’ll find: Service will start about 15 minutes late with people filtering in from the coffee bar. Before the start of “worship” the house lights are dimmed and spotlights are focused on the “worship” band. The leader of the “worship” team will welcome you and begin to sing an up-beat rock style “worship” song as smoke machines billow out fragrant smoke.
The words of the song will be on huge screens on each side of the stage, but very few sing along because quite frankly you can’t understand the lead singer and the back-up singers are singing in indecipherable harmonious non-articulated rhythmic intonations. The drums are loud, the horn section groovy and the guitar riffs are Clapton-esque. All the spectators/ congregants around you have their hands raised, their eyes closed and they are dancing to the band’s funky rhythm.
After three fast, two slow songs and a catchy chorus that is repeated 27 times, a GQ looking man in designer shoes with a high-tech, virtually invisible headset/ microphone comes to the stage and introduces a multi-media presentation that invites you to an up-coming concert/ skateboard demo/ prize giveaway event hosted by a hip celebrity wannabe who never-was.
Once the smoke has settled and the ringing in your ears has subsided, another hip dude in jeans and an un-tucked designer shirt comes out with a big book and a bottle of water in his hands and sits down on a sofa. He gives a 30 minute message about how you can be a better father/ mother/ child/ employee/ boss/ neighbor/ cook (pick one) and accomplish anything you set your mind to - never opening the book he brought out - supporting each point with a very well produced video/ power-point clip.
The service ends at exactly the right time because in the next 22 minutes the auditorium needs to empty of the early service goers so that the late service goers can file in to watch the start of the same show that starts 15 minutes late because the lines at the café are long. As you exit, being careful not to make eye contact with anyone, you overhear the 20 something’s behind you declare “that was awesome…the worship band rocks!” and you can’t help but to want to come back next week to experience that again.
Meanwhile as you get to your car and head for the exit ramp, six cars cut you off, four honk and scream and seven parking attendants sustain minor injuries from impatient church goers trying to get home before kick-off…just another day at the Whispering Valley Epic Revolution Non-denominational Community Outreach Missional church.
There has been a deliberate paradigm shift in how church is done from “what can I offer my King” to “what can my King offer me.” We no longer are seeking to serve God we are now seeking to be served by God. We want to have a “cool worship experience” by having “worship” performed to entertain us and we want to be amused by relevant teachings that cause us to feel comfortable in our various shortcomings and hopeful for a purposeful and successful life. “What’s in it for me? How will it affect my life? How does that help me become successful?”
But worship isn’t supposed to be for us, worship is to be directed to God and intended for God… tailoring it to simply feed our desire to be entertained does more damage than good. And teaching relevant, “you too can be successful in life and change the world” messages is just feeding the congregation's self indulgent tendencies and is doing a great disservice to that congregation. Church shouldn’t be about you, it needs to be about Christ.
Jesus taught that if you want to be a disciple of His you must (in other words it is not an option) put aside your desires, die to yourself, and seek His will as opposed to your own. (Matthew 10:37-39; 16:24-25, Mark 8:34-35, Luke 9:23-24; 17:33, John 12:25-26; 14:23…among many others) The Bible also teaches that in order for you to be recognized as a child of God you must understand that you are without esteem and that humility is required from you if you want to find His purpose for your life. (Psalm 34:18; 51:17, Isaiah 57:15; 66:1-2, Matthew 5:3-5; 18:4; 23:12, Luke 14:11; 18:14, James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:6…among many others) We need to be living and teaching what Jesus taught: surrender, brokenness and humility.
Those motivational words that encourage us to follow our dreams are more destructive than useful. Working hard to attain your vision of yourself will consistently lead to discouragement because your vision for yourself is hopelessly skewed by an idealistic image of yourself and your abilities… Seeking God’s vision for you in contrast will result in peace and contentment because it is based on His perfect knowledge of who you are, what you can accomplish and when you’ll best be ready to accomplish it.
You want to be successful? Put aside the dreams you have for yourself and seek the dreams He has for you… those dreams are not just attainable, but by His grace and power you will attain them… and when attained you will find that His dreams are infinitely better than your own. Seek first His kingdom… the rest will take care of itself.
2 comments:
I do like to raise my hands in praise and close my eyes in worship and dance for the Lord as David did.
I also appreciate your words on what is truly God's plan for me and His working in my spirit to establish and bring to fruitation that which is His will and which He intends will bring glory and honor to Him. Which is, in my opinion, why He created me in His image and cleansed me by HIS blood.
"For nothing is impossible with God" Luke 1:37
"Apart from Me you can do nothing"
John 15:5
Psalm 98:4-6
Psalm 134:2
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