What’s the difference?

One of the most important experiences any Christian can have is to to be philosophically outnumbered. I’m talking about being in a situation on a constant basis where your worldview most likely doesn’t jive with everyone else’s. This is when you are forced into honest perspectives about our Faith and the people around you and start to see the world a little more as God sees it. Let me explain, starting with a situation I find myself in lately:

Yoga

About a year ago now, I discovered the awesomeness that is yoga. I always hated working out…I found it boring and repetitive. I found lifting weights the mental equivalent of watching Everybody Loves Raymond. I’m more of a PBS guy myself…so when I discovered the amazing mental practice involved in yoga, I finally found some exercise that worked for me. I actually go more for it’s mental and spiritual benefits than it’s physical ones (although those are a killer bonus!)

I arrive at yoga each time looking forward to a deep rest period (albeit, one that makes you sweat your ass off). When I step in the room, the air is just different. Life looks different. People in the studio with me seem different. Everyone is suddenly more cerebral, more spiritual. In my experience, this is something I haven’t experienced anywhere outside of a place of worship (and only very rarely at this level, even in a church). There’s a heavy focus on the soul..there’s a different view on the world from inside that room than outside it.

Worldviews

As you may expect, when in that yoga class, my worldview often collides with that of those around me. Not in an obvious way, but in an internal way within myself. Since yoga is based on a spiritual worldview different than my own, I’m challenged to reconcile what I hear and what surrounds me with the world that I’ve experienced through Jesus Christ. I’m in that environment I was talking about: A place where I’m greatly outnumbered philosophically. And, ya know what? It’s been extremely healthy for my worldview and my faith.

This is gonna get uncomfortable

Ok, for all my Christian friends, this discussion is about to get uncomfortable. It’s about to get extremely challenging. And it’s about to get truthful.

You see, when you’re surrounded by folks outside the faith you find that they’re no different than yourself in most ways (duh!), but when you surround yourself with folks of a different spiritual or philosophical worldview you find something even more shocking (at least if you believe most popular Christian thinking out there): Modern Christians aren’t very different (mentally, spiritually, morally) from those that follow other spiritual practices. Not very different AT ALL.

This statement isn’t shocking to folks outside the faith…I hear a collective “duh! we already knew that” as I type this. However, for those inside the faith, this is blasphemy.

What We All Share

When in this environment of being spiritually ‘outnumbered’, you find out some things about both yourself and others pretty quickly. Contrary to what modern Christians may preach, the “world out there” isn’t any less spiritual than we are. Folks outside the faith understand prayer, they understand forgiveness, they teach love and respect, they know humbleness. These things are all cornerstones of other faiths (and of just normal, everyday, ‘be a good guy’ living). Folks “out there” know what real love is…they know what sacrifice is…they know what it means to submit yourself out of love for others. They are kind to their children and their friends, they are seeking spiritual truths and trying to better themselves.

Contrary to what many Christians think (and goes unsaid in churches all over the US each week): The people outside the church walls are good people. They’re moral people. They’re spiritual people….just like us Christians.

So, what’s the difference?

As I thought about this I was stopped suddenly in my tracks. I realized that if you look at 95% of what we believe the Christian faith to be…nothing about it is unique. We’re just like anyone else. So, take this one more shocking step: I would suggest that since we share this 95% of what we think our faith means with everyone else, this isn’t what Christianity is about. If we’re trying to find the difference between Christianity and every other religion (including many secular atheists) it’s not found in love, or humility, or sacrifice, or prayer, or honesty, or the seeking of truth. These things are found in many, many people (and are the bedrock of many faiths) outside of our own.

So, I ask you…what’s the difference between being a Christian and not?

Subtlety

At this point there’s two lessons to be seen: First, for those outside the faith: Christianity isn’t about good works. It’s not about our love for each other. It’s not what most Christians say it is. It’s much more subtle than that. Second, for Christians: Stop thinking these things are unique to our faith. “The World” is not full of evil people waiting to tear you down. The majority of people are spiritually VERY similar to you, and about as ‘good’ as you…so stop acting and talking like they’re not.

When we learn those lessons, we must ask again: What’s the difference? There obviously is one…somewhere. It must be a very understated, but VERY important one, otherwise Christianity might as well be any other religion (or no religion at all).

The Breaking Point

Some of you may be having an imaginary argument with me right now. You may be telling me I’m foolish because I think people are good, people are loving, and people are humble. You’re invariably going to “The Hitler Argument” (where people in arguments about good and evil always end up) or you’ve written me off as a disconnected hippie. If you are thinking that, you’re assuming that I said that people are ALWAYS good, ALWAYS humble, ALWAYS loving. But I never said that. I said that when it comes to love and humility and goodness, people outside Christianity are about the same as those inside. I never declared people always good…that’s too one dimensional and, obviously, just not true.

So, if on our best days Christians and Non Christians alike can be equally moral and equally loving, that’s not where the difference is found. So, what about the other times? Just like we can all be loving, we can all be hateful. We can all be cruel. We can all be selfish and arrogant. Christians and non-believers are no different…we’re all equally broken. The question becomes: What do we do with our brokenness? Our hate? Our anger?

I would suggest that we may have stumbled onto the difference.

Watch Someone’s Bad Day

When work goes south. When there’s death and sickness at the doorstep. When we’ve been wronged. When we step outside that yoga studio and resume life. These are times when, I’m starting to believe, the difference in being a Christian can be seen. If you could watch someone’s bad day, I think it would tell you alot about their spirituality. It’s easy to be ’spiritual’ and loving when things are good (or at least not bad)…as I’ve mentioned, we can all do that equally well. But how does a person see life when things are falling down all around them? How do they react? Who do they blame? Where do they hide?

I’m not going to suggest that all folks who claim to be Christian become suddenly zen when things go badly. But I am going to suggest that someone truly following Jesus will look different than someone praying to the Buddha. I’m not prepared to predict exactly how they’ll look different…but they will. Whatever difference you find in that moment is the core of Christianity. Who we are and what we do when ‘life happens’ is what separates worldviews and is proof of what we really believe deep inside.

Truth in Brokenness

I wish we, as Christians, would stop talking about how ‘evil’ the world is. It’s a waste of breath and it’s a lie. “The World” is no more evil than we are. It’s also no more loving. I wish we’d preach the difference in brokenness. I wish we’d stop thinking we’re ‘better’ and realize we’re the same broken, loving, sinful, angry, good, beautiful, spiritual, prayerful, hateful, truth-seekers as everyone else. For a faith whose birth lies in The Garden, we should know this more than anyone.

Let’s stop treating other faiths as something they’re not (inferior and full of lies). Let’s acknowledge that we have almost everything in common with others on their spiritual journey so we can peel away the layers and get to the difference, the piece that makes them incomplete: the embracing of brokenness and the need for a Perfect Healer.

From now on, I’ll see the spreading of the gospel differently. It’s not about love, it’s about healing. It’s not that other religions are completely “wrong”..they’re mostly just incomplete. There’s just a statue or a story (or even a blank hole) where a Healer should be. The difference is in the brokenness and where we go to be made whole again.

We are all made in His image. We were all born in The Garden. We were all thrown out for our disobedience. We are a mess of love and brokenness all mixed up. The difference in our worldviews is all found in one question: When we find this to be true…where do we go from there?

Ron

Hey Bob, Its good to hear you speak some truth, I found your blog through drupal podcasts.... go figure web design and theology.

I was thinking about something similar today, about how i need to not pity people.

How when I help someone I don't need to put them below me (internally ) but I need to understand I am like them, and I need help all the same, and I can only give because I have been given to myself (if thats not a tongue twister and makes sense)

It's good to hear you have a heart for people. And interesting to see this side of your online presences,

and humm yoga I have done a little but nothing serious mostly just for working out... and I actually like running so I do that but its more solo.
Anthony

Ok, thanks for the clarification.

It really does touch on an excellent study though... the thought that, in this life, the rubber hits the road when "life happens." This is when the present value of one's worldview is experienced. So, for e.g., when the Jehovah Witness get's cancer, where does that works- based system get you?

However, this could just as easily be turned on the Christianity of evangelical protestantism... that if the inner emotional experience of the heart is what matters, if that is the core of one's religion, where does that get you when you can no longer give assent to the confession of the faith because of Alzheimer's?

I continue to find more and more comfort in my faith as something Christ did outside of me.

Anyway, thanks for the thoughts Bob!
Bob

Excellent distinction. You're right when you say that what I'm talking about is the exterior EVIDENCE of a difference, not the difference itself. The Christian God, Yahweh come to earth as The Christ, is the difference itself...but how a Christian reacts is just a reflection of that fact.

If just 'what we did' when life happened was the difference, then you're right: it's just another set of works. I probably should have said that we take that a step further and look at WHY we did what we did...that's where the difference lies.

The "why we did it" is the mystical aspect of this discussion...because the answer is "we did it because we couldn't ever do it...it's the Healer doing it for us"

So, in the end: Good distinction Anthony: What I'm talking about here is the outward and visible difference between Christians and others...not the true difference between Christianity and other faiths.

Still trying to wrap my head around what I've just written here :)
Anthony

I love it when Christians actually point out the stark reality that visible, and often invisible, distinctions cannot always be made between Christianity and other religions. In fact, I think you should take it a step further to say that often other religions can be more sincere, more spiritual, more loving, etc. than Christianity. There is no hard fast rule that if you're really a Christian than you're better at these than others. Sometimes the song "they will know we are Christians by our love" just doesn't fit.

However, your solution to the difference between religions seems to be interwoven with the problem. If what separates worldviews is what we do when "life happens" than is that not just another good work (which you did well to argue is not the essence of Christianity, though it is a necessary fruit of faith, albiet a fruit that is not specific to Christianity)? I assume when you argue the differences between religions you are speaking of an outward distinction. If you are talking about more than just and outward distinction then is my reaction to what happens to me in life the "core" of my faith. Is my salvation dependent upon what I do? What if I have no reaction or my reaction is the same as a non-believer, am I lost?

I think the difference in worldviews is more simple than that... either my sin, problems, and all my junk is forgiven and redeemed at the cross... or not. Either my name is written in heaven... or it's not. That truth will be manifested differently in different people. But in the end, we are all broken people seeking to be healed and very much in need of healing - excellent point here Bob!