Becoming the living dead

I believe we who reside in this fast paced, spiritually detached and distracted society lack in understanding of what it means to live as Christ. I will share from a personal perspective, as well my thoughts on how I see this apparent in the American church as a whole.I have always desired to better myself. I am what you would call a person who sought “self actualization”, in the context of wanting to constantly push myself to become more conscious of who I was and then to try and curb that perception to fit my idea of “best” for my inner man.

 Attending a secular college helped further me along in this way and I thought it was a clear path to happiness. I also had no real problem intertwining my Christian identity with this worldly notion of bettering ones self. My discovery of Abraham Maslow and his approach to the hierarchy of needs helped confirmed my suspicions; in that I believed tapping into my desire to be fulfilled as a human, must come through reaching my potential. I thought the best way to achieve this was through mutating into a better “me”. I wanted to love people more, care about those in need and stop being so self-centered.

 So I was continually analyzing my actions and every so often would also stare deep into my soul for an evaluation. But honestly, I really measured my growth as a person through positive behavior changes on the outside. I thought that by taking note of my weaknesses and asking Christ to help me get over them, I could continue on to become a confident and strong woman of God. The merging of Christianity and the humanistic theory of betterment leads to destruction. Yet I feel that this pervades the Church and utterly cripples the body of Christ today.

We are trying to live in a wicked culture that is progressively getting more evil, by standing up and proclaiming truth in the confidence of who we are in Christ. Unfortunately the picture painted of who we are as believers, is far removed from the vision we get by reading the gospels. The Christian we desire to live up to is strong, confident, powerful and operating in many gifts. He is wealthy, healthy (or should I say plump) and incredibly cheery. He is the face of prosperity and yet completely bankrupt on the inside because of his inability to deny himself. 

Humanism is steeped in self and so is most of the moderate Christian life style. True righteousness calls for extreme living and by that I mean killing self. The person I used to try so hard to preserve and strengthen must actually grow faint and weak for me to follow Christ. Picking up my cross leaves no hands free to carry my pride or flesh. I have to loose the person inside of me who dearly longs to be great and stop engaging in my own ability to flourish.

 The irony in this call to shut down all attempts to renew myself, is that true satisfaction comes in saying no to the pleasures of this age. By setting my gaze on Christ I am given the grace to no longer yearn for momentary living and am thrust into a place of hungering after holiness. The cycle of habitual sin is broken when I stop feeding myself and begin to feast on the eternal truth of God. The key is found in a glorious exchange between a submitted heart and the everlasting One.

 We must follow Christ, in allowing Him to lead us into the perfection of love. Without love it is impossible to please God. The foundation of becoming the living dead must be founded in communion with the Savior. What a majestic call that we as followers of Christ get to partake of. There is nothing more astounding then the truth that the Father has provided the opportunity for mere humans to be filled with God: the eternal dwelling in the corruptible and the all-powerful making a home in the weak. Indeed we must grasp this truth as such to bow our hearts low and give over any rights we perceive we have to live for ourselves.