Christian Cliches

Standing in a long, slow-moving post office line today, I started talking to the man standing behind me. Over the course of the conversation we discovered that we are both Christians.

 He was estatic to discover that we were both ‘committed’ to our faith. He asked me, ‘But don’t you find it difficult, all the persecution we suffer at the hands of unbelievers? They just don’t understand our belief.’

I said, ‘Um, most people seem fairly tolerant of my beliefs and are happy to accept that my faith works for me.’ I told him how I don’t preach to people, but I do share the difference that trusting Jesus has made to my life. I mentioned that an awareness of God’s love has helped me to be less selfish, something that I really became aware of once I was married.

He said, ‘Yes, a lady at my church said that “There isn’t any room for selfishness because it doesn’t leave space for God.” That’s true, don’t you think?’

By now, I was aware of other people around us, also bored by the long line and enjoying some entertainment by appearing not to be listening to our conversation. I said, ‘Can anyone ever be free of selfishness? Isn’t it essentially human to be selfish? Our selfishness is the reason we need God.’

He thought for a moment, and then said, ‘I don’t really know what that lady meant. I guess it’s just important to “put Jesus first in your heart and have a heart full of Jesus.”‘

‘Um . . . what does that mean?’ I said. I knew what he was getting at, but his use of these Christian cliches was starting to get to me.

He waffled a bit and said it was something like reading the Bible every day and praying. Then it was finally my turn to send my package, so we said good-bye.

I don’t mean to be disrespectful of this kind and keen man. I’m certain he is sincere. But I’m troubled by his use of these stock phrases. I worry that he goes to church and learns a slogan without really understanding what it means. It makes me wonder about the depth of the preaching at his church. And I also wonder whether he uses these phrases on people who have never gone to church. If so, it’s no wonder people don’t understand his beliefs. He doesn’t.

Hearing God

Several people have spoken to me recently about how they long to hear God speak to them, but how they never have. Some say they’ve prayed all their lives and never felt God’s presence. Do you think that anyone can learn to hear God’s voice?  Or are some people more sensitive to the spiritual realm than others? Just as some people have better eye-sight than others, are some people just naturally more open to hearing from God than others? I’ve always assumed the former, but I’ve started to wonder whether the latter might be true on some level.

Barbara Doubtfire writes that “Hearing God’s voice is an intriguing concept/experience.  I think the simplest way I view it is that so many experiences, when I reflect on them, are ‘as if” God has spoken….experiences of fulfillment (feeling full)…of penitence…of a shove to change direction…a ‘knowing’ – out of the blue but with certainty …”

The Jesuit priest Gerard Hughes puts it in his classic book God of Surprises, “God is mystery, a beckoning word, and He calls us out beyond our narrowness … The journey to God is a journey of discovery and it is full of surprises.”

I think that God speaks to people more than they realise. I remember when I first recognised that the soft, gentle ‘niggle’ in my mind was God’s voice. I then realised that he had been speaking to me for a long time, I just hadn’t fully understood that it was him.

For those who want to hear from God, I think they could pray and ask God to help them recognise his voice. Jesus’ words at the end of John 9 seem to indicate that he opens and closes people’s spiritual eyes, so I imagine this applies to people’s spiritual ears as well.

Vanity Lair

I saw a new television programme called ‘Vanity Lair’ for the first time today. I was shocked by the rules: Only people believe their looks are 10 out of 10 are allowed into the house. Visitors come and the housemates vote the best-looking one into the house, and the newcomer votes the worst looking housemate out of the house.

 Bizarre.

I started to wonder whether we really have been reduced to this level of superficiality. However, what happened in the house was interesting. The first housemate was voted out – and the reason? Not his looks – but because he had annoyed the other housemates and distanced himself from them. In the end, it came down to being able to get along with others, and if he couldn’t do it, no matter how nice he looked, he was out.

Some of the housemates were asked about what sort of person they were hoping would come into the house. The answer:

‘Not someone beautiful, there’s enough of that in here. We need someone we can get on with and have a laugh.’

It seems that at the end of the day, people will want us around because of who we are and not what we look like.

Deal or No Deal and the Universe

Now that I am regularly going to the gym, I’ve been watching more television that usual as I sweat on the cross trainer or treadmill. Yesterday I  saw an episode of Deal or No Deal.

 A woman was playing who shared that she had been through some difficult times due to a disability and was in financial difficulties. Noel praised because of her ‘positive belief’. Toward the end of the game, she had only two boxes left. She announced that she had ‘asked the Universe to put the £250,000 in box 22′. She opened the box, which contained only £5.

I guess the ‘Universe’ didn’t listen to her.

Does she realise that she is praying?

It isn’t praying to God, but it is certainly praying – what else would you call asking a higher power outside of oneself to perform a supernatural act on our behalf?