Falling for the fake

The year was 1988 Clemson was ranked number 3, and was favored over the number 10 Seminoles. The Tigers had scored with 2:32 remaining to tie the score at 21-21, and then a minute later, forced Florida State into a fourth and four situation on their own 21 yard line. Victory was within Clemson’s grasp. And that’s when Bobby Bowden called “puntrooski”. Florida State had practiced the play, saving it for just such a situation. A fake punt, a faked fumbled snap, and Lee Roy Butler sprinting down the sidelines of Death Valley on his way to setting up the game winning field goal.

I am a Clemson fan and to this day cannot believe the brazenness of the fake. I still cannot believe that a team that had every reason to expect the unexpected from coach Bowden would fall for such a play.

As Christians we are always talking about the lies Satan tells. He told a whopper to Eve in the Garden of Eden and has been telling them every since. We should expect lies from him. Yet living in a country with more churches, more published Christian writings, and more analysis of the Christian faith than anywhere in the world, possibly in the history of the world, we have fallen for a “rooski” of monumental proportions.

We live in a society of instant gratification. We wait patiently for nothing. Mirriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines gratify as that which gives pleasure or satisfaction. We are all about pleasure and satisfaction as long as we can have them yesterday and at no cost. The “rooski” is that Christians have fallen for this life philosophy. Not only is it not found in the Bible its opposite is found in the Bible.

The Bible teaches such things as service, giving ourselves away to God and to others. The Bible teaches about suffering, that a world culture that opposes the Bible’s view of the world and culture will make life difficult and often not pleasant for Christians. Yet these concepts have disappeared from the vocabulary of most Christians, probably due to its lack of popularity.

In its place there is success vocabulary that gives us pointers on living a life measured against the same standards as our secular culture. One of the writers of the New Testament, a man named James said cultivating a close friendship with the world makes us enemies with God.

This idea of living for pleasure and satisfaction is a very self-centered view of life. The problem comes from the false idea that satisfaction and pleasure can ever come by making them the end. If I make my satisfaction and my pleasure my lead life goals, I will fail to reach them by aiming at the wrong target. The same guy, James said if we want for things so that they will bring us pleasure, we are motivated by selfishness.

Jesus, talking about this same idea, said that if we want to keep our life we need to lose it and if we lose our life we will find it. That sounds like the most backward philosophy of life I have ever heard. If I live with God’s and others interests above my own I will actually find not only greater satisfaction, but longer lasting satisfaction. The greatest treasure in life is gaining something I know I can never lose.

Cars, houses, X-boxes and I-Pods just don’t measure up. The coolest car isn’t the coolest a few months later. My dream house is only my dream house until my dreams escalate. X-boxes and I-Pods are almost instantly outstripped by newer and better technology. The race never ends and the joy of leading grows weaker and weaker while the challenge of leading grows stronger and stronger.

True treasure cannot be something that will end up on ebay before the American public sours on its next batch of politicians.

Here is an interesting “puntrooski” fact: in 1999 Tommy Bowden, coaching his first Clemson-FSU game tried the “puntrooski” against his father. The play worked again with almost identical success, except Clemson lined up in an illegal formation and the play was nullified by a penalty.

The same “liferooski” should no longer work but it does. We keep living for the sake of our own satisfaction and pleasure and we keep missing it. Maybe it’s time for a new life strategy. Maybe.

Management Christianity

Christianity in America is a religion of management. Churches hawk “Better Marriage”, “Better Parents”, and a list of self help/self improvement classes that all fail to deal with the issue that in sin we are dead and Jesus came to give us life. We learn to manage life not live it. We learn how to manage the disappointment, the pain and even the joy of life. We seldom hear, much less accept the invitation to come and live it. If Jesus came to help me figure out a way to avoid both the highs and lows of relationships He could have just as well stayed in heaven. If he came to invite me to live through those lows in light of His care and steadiness, if He came to invite me to enjoy the highs in light of His surpassing greatness, then I want to know that Jesus.

I want to live my life not manage it. Management is always about gain while minimizing risk. Life is often about loss. It is about risking and risking greatly. I want to know my wife. I want her anger, confusion, and disappointments as well as her joy and understanding. Christianity will give me steps to minimize the exposure to anger. It will help me direct her confusion elsewhere. It will school me on lowering expectation so that disappointment is less likely. I hate that.

Real life is not about narrowing the band width of our emotions. While it is true that in doing so I can minimize pain, the trade-off is that I rob myself of the possibility of true joy. Jesus said He came that I would have life to the full. He also promised He would never leave me alone. I think that means Jesus will walk the path of pain with me. I also believe He will ride the wave of joy. And, He will show my what true life is in both.

Christianity has also become about empty promises and pat answers. The truth is life is hard and there are no easy answers nor remedies. Christianity is not a treatment of symptoms. Rather, Christianity, true Jesus life spirituality, is a radical surgery preformed to remove the cancer and begin healing. I don't want to hear that if I pray more everything will be ok. It may and with equal probability it may not. I don't want to hear about not having enough faith. Some of the greatest faith guys in the Bible, Job, Peter and Paul had debilitating life crises. Trade with them? No thanks.

I just want to know the real Jesus, not the American version, who is a Republican, attends a dead church faithfully and hides behind favorite commandments while ignoring others. I want the Jesus that can answer the tough "street questions" of life. "Why am I here?" "Why can't I seem to get what others have?" "What if I end up all alone?" I want the Jesus that won't frown if I cuss because life is hard and edgy why can't my speach be edgy as well? I want the Jesus that is more than a Sunday placeebo for guilt that will probably increase anyway. I want a Jesus that can change me at the heart level and make me a better, more alive person. I want the Jesus who is God, because only He could do that.