Is Our Christianity Too Cute?

I don’t know that there has ever been a time before where as Western world Christians, we have so much access to resources, products and other believers as we do today. Lately I have been railing against the lure to float on a surface Christianity complete with its cliche words and phrases, sweatshirts, coffee mugs and bite sized morsels of advice while missing on not only going deep, but staying deep. This is not to diminish the value of any of the conveniences that we have and the many teachers and preachers who inspire us every day. I am also not knocking merchandise like apparel, journals and coffee mugs. We ourselves sell a lovely coffee mug! However, consumerism is not the path to closeness with God. 

With all things in life, we must continually survey where we have inadvertently turned them into idols  and be open to reshuffling and even removing if needed. We must ask ourselves whether we have mistaken a vibrant Christian culture with a powerful Christian walk. At the risk of making even this blog post too cute, I am going to share some areas to be cautious of that also start with the letter “c”. Your grace is much appreciated.

Am I too casual with God?

Jesus is our friend. God is close to us, We are adopted into His family. But God is not on our level. Though our prayers may look like ongoing conversion with God, there must also be room for reverential awe. God is Holy. God is King of all. God is worthy of our worship. 

Psalm 96:2-6

Sing to the LORD, bless his name;

tell of his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the nations,

his marvelous works among all the peoples!

For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;

he is to be feared above all gods.

For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,

but the LORD made the heavens.

Splendor and majesty are before him;

strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

Am I allowing my heart to be convicted?

Have you experienced the deep knowing when the Holy Spirit calls out one your thoughts, words or deeds? Perhaps when we feasted on a morsel of gossip or gave an unnecessarily harsh response to a family member or another driver on the road. I know that my immediate response is sometimes to give reason as to why I just did what I did instead of taking a moment to repent and when necessary, ask for forgiveness from others. If we gloss over our sins because of the level of severity that we or society place on them, we risk becoming desensitized and repeating detrimental patterns. There are no levels - sin is sin. 

Acts 3:19 

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, 

that times of refreshing may come from the Lord

Am I just too comfortable?

As a wife, mom, nonprofit leader and minister, I understand how life sometimes be “lifing”. I am well acquainted with sleepless nights, plans for a quiet evening of reflective study that get redirected to urgent care visits or helping with school projects. There are so many times when our best intentions for spending time with God get usurped by daily demands. When life is at its peak of overwhelm is when we need to go even deeper in making time for God. This will mean inconvenience. It may mean fasting, putting aside downtime in order to be in a quiet and listening space with the Lord. To be honest, a Netflix binge has never renewed or restored my soul yet that is where I have reached when I have been at the end of myself. Yet, there has never been time I took to be with God that I have regretted.  God has always proven to be the lifter of my head. Let’s ask ourselves the hard question, “Am I relegating God to convenient times in my schedule”?

Psalm 16:11

You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Amigas, the world needs the people of God to be vigilant, prayerful, focused and ready for warfare. Our prayers matter. They are powerful and effective (James 5:16). Our relationship with God is not simply so that we can be better people and our friends and family can be blessed. We are all called for such a time as this. Let’s reflect on how we have been settling into cuteness at the expense of wielding Holy Spirit anointed power in dark places.