Throw-away Christianity

About two months ago I went in search of one of those little devices that makes the everyday life a bit more…comfortable.

A flyswatter.

While picking up a few groceries at the local supercenter I searched out the flyswatters. At that time they had several two packs of ordinary, everyday, regular flyswatters. You know…the kind with the metal handle and the plastic swatter. I was happy to find those because I’ve learned from experience that buying the all plastic flyswatters is the equivalent to throwing money away because they’ll be broken within days. The same day I got the flyswatters I also picked up a two pack of wasp spray.

Sure that we would be able to deal with the hordes of wasps taking up residence on the outside of our house and the occasional fly that was finding its way inside I left the store.

Only to discover that when we used the wasp spray it did little to nothing on the wasps. This was spray that said it was guaranteed to kill on contact and the wasps just flew away when they were sprayed. Well…we still had the flyswatters.

And they did good. They killed not only flies but wasps and the occasional spider too. With four flyswatters we should have been good not only this summer but for several summers to come. Only…they didn’t do much better than the bug spray. Within a month at least two of them were broken. Now down to one flyswatter I’m convinced that they work about the same as the wasp spray. They last for a little while, do just enough to be able to say they work, and then give out.

Our society has become what’s called a throw-away society. It’s long been known that we use something until we decide we need another one and then replace whether or not it really needs replacing. There’s a whole movement geared toward getting people to use only reusable things. Reusable shopping bags, reusable straws, reusable cups designed to look like their throw-away counterparts. You name it and you can most likely find something designed to be used over and over again that would take the place of the conventional throw-away version.

Modern Christianity is a lot like the throw-away society and all the products that go with it. The local ‘Christian’ radio station has been playing commercials for a ‘Christian’ kid’s camp. In this advertisement a woman talks about how secure she feels leaving her children in the hands of the staff at this camp and how they plan new activities every summer. A worker talks about how they’re ‘on fire’ for Jesus.

On fire for Jesus.

As I heard that yesterday I found myself wondering what exactly that means. I’ve heard the saying before, have met people that claimed to be on fire for Jesus before, have known people that were thrilled because they’re daughter was ‘on fire for God.’ But as I listened to that commercial I had to wonder…what does it mean to be ‘on fire for Jesus?’

I love the Lord, live to please Him. I feel Him in the deepest recesses of me. If you took Him away from me there would be nothing left of me but a shell. I very much enjoy reading Scripture.

But I’m not on fire for Jesus.

My husband commented on the very thing I was pondering as that commercial ended. ‘They’re on fire for Jesus.’ His tone and expression conveyed his skepticism and opinion. So I wasn’t the only one thinking those things.

The moment ended and we said no more about it. I forgot about it until this morning when my husband picked up our one remaining flyswatter and was pointing out how thin it was made and how they used to be made better, how they lasted for years when they were made better.

I can’t remember my grandparents ever having to buy a new flyswatter and they seemed to keep plenty of flyswatters around. But I don’t remember them ever needing to be replaced. At least not when I was a child. Every year my grandmother simply got the flyswatter off the hook when the flies started coming inside, when the weather turned cooler and they stopped making an appearance the flyswatter would hang there until it was needed again when the weather warmed up.

There was no need to buy a new one, no need to repair it or look for a bigger or better one. Here was the flyswatter, it served its purpose year after year and there was never a thought given to replacing it or needing to make it look or feel better. It was simply there…waiting to serve its purpose.

There are Christians that are that way. We don’t need camps and concerts. No need for fancy light shows and sad stories that tug at the emotions. Give us the gospel and we are happy to listen for hours. Tell us we’re sinners, give us a message that says we deserve hell and we’ll sit through it time and again.

And then there’s another type of ‘Christianity’. One that uses terms like we’re ‘on fire for Jesus’ or the one that really makes me cringe…Jesus freaks. This ‘Christianity’ uses terms and expressions like this to tell their targeted audience that they are very ‘spiritual’, they use those terms and the concerts, kids camps, rodeos, and all the other ‘Christian’ activities to pull people in.

They pull them in with all these things because unregenerate people can’t be held with the true gospel. They won’t sit for hours listening as they read scripture. They’ll walk out of congregations or audiences if a message is given on how sinful they are. So in come the camps and all the other things that are needed to pull them in and keep them coming back.

True Christianity is ‘boring’ so it can’t be delivered to the majority of ‘Christian’ audiences. It must be made more appealing. Here are people used to living in the world. They seek the things of the world. They sit through a Sunday sermon and long before it ends they are thinking of which restaurant they will go to for lunch, they’re thinking of the movie they’ll see at the cinema after lunch, they’re thinking of the shopping trip they’re going on tomorrow, they’re thinking of….all the things that hold their attention.

So the band is brought back on stage, the screens are lit up, the drums start pounding out a beat that pulls the attention. Their minds are brought back to the ‘gospel’ as its delivered through props and stories. And it creates Jesus Freaks that are on fire for Jesus.

But how long does it last?

Is it real?

Yesterday I was at the same supercenter looking for replacement flyswatters. I went back to the same department and found…nothing. When I asked a worker where I could find the flyswatters I was taken to a whole slew of battery operated bug zappers with lights and electrical currents. Here was the replacement for the plain old ordinary flyswatter I wanted. When I bought flyswatters a couple of months ago they were stacked on the very top shelf, out of sight unless you were looking for them. Yesterday the plain old, ordinary flyswatters were gone. Now there was a whole aisle filled with all these different battery operated bug zappers in bright colors, boxes with all the advantages of this type of bug killer written on their fronts. Not only had the flyswatter been replaced but where it had been relegated to the very top shelf where it sat unseen unless a person looked for it…now there were these new and improved bug zappers taking up every shelf on the aisle from top to bottom. The choices seemed endless.

As I asked for a regular flyswatter I was once again directed to the electronic replacements. And they appeared at first sight to be better than the ordinary flyswatter.  Who wouldn’t want something that kills on contact or that you don’t even have to touch for it to kill all the bugs? It would seem to be better than an ordinary flyswatter. It lights up, it hums, it zaps bugs on contact.

And I knew from experience that they don’t work. I’ve had several different versions of this electronic bug zapper in past years. No matter how expensive or how cheap they were they all had the same result. If you have swarms of teeny tiny bugs they will kill some of them but it takes a cloud of bugs to be able to kill out a moderate amount of them. To kill a fly you must capture the fly in the little cross bars and basically fry it otherwise flies will be stunned for a few minutes and then they’ll get up and fly off like nothing happened.

Here was the so-called solution to killing flies. Use lights, humming and electricity to kill them. Some of these bug zappers even pulled bugs in with lights that appeal to them then zap them once they’ve flown into the light.

Much like those ‘Christian’ camps and various other activities pull people in so they can ‘zap’ them with Jesus. The belief goes something like this….they won’t come into our ‘church’ to hear us tell them they’re sinners so we need to pull them in with fun activities that will capture them and keep them coming back. While they’re here we’ll tell them how much Jesus loves them and we’ll save them.

It works in much the same way as those bug zappers…lure them in with lights and noise and zap them once we have them in our midst. One might even begin to feel sorry for the human bugs that are being lured and zapped.

Because once they’ve been zapped, once they’ve seen the error of their ways, once they’re ‘on fire for Jesus’…their lives will never be the same again.

But is it real?

Does it last?

Here are people that claim to be ‘on fire for Jesus’, they’ve changed their lives, they’re doing all these things in the hopes of converting more and more people so that they too will be ‘on fire for Jesus’ and yet…

How long before that fires starts to sputter? How long before the oxygen is cut off or the wood is too wet? How long before the excitement of being on fire begins to fade and they’re left with a ‘Christianity’ that is only sometimes burning?

Because it wasn’t built on Christ at all.

There’s nothing in Scripture that talks of being ‘on fire’ for Christ. Nowhere in the pages of the Bible was anyone ever called a ‘Jesus Freak.’

And yet in the ‘Christianity’ of today being a Jesus Freak is considered such a wonderful thing that it’s plastered on t-shirts, books, bumper stickers and more. It, and terms like it, are used to lure people into ‘Christian’ programs. Parents want their children to be ‘on fire’ or a ‘Jesus Freak’ because it means they’re saved.

And like the difference between the flyswatter that was made to last and the one made to fall apart with little use, this type of ‘Christianity’ fades in time. It is a throw-away ‘Christianity’. Where you once had a person that was ‘on fire for Jesus’ joining in all the activities, helping host them and teach Jesus to new recruits…now you have people that are left remembering when they were ‘on fire for Jesus’ and now they aren’t. Because what was built on light shows and excitement can’t last. It won’t survive being taken from all the excitement, on full display, and turned into the ordinary, plain, basic and set on the top shelf out of sight.