I Don't Want to Be a Professional Christian! - No Reverence
Seeing the ocean for the first time is an extraordinary experience, but if you see it every day, sadly, the sense of awe diminishes. Soon, you will barely notice it at all. This applies to almost any aspect of the human experience. Repeated exposure to anything, whether oceans, mountains, or ice cream, leads to familiarity, which over time dulls our appreciation for it.
Can this happen to our faith?
I have been a follower of Jesus for as long as I can remember. I can use the right words, sing the songs, and blend in - but this isn’t enough for me. I don’t want to be a “professional Christian”, someone who has reached a high level of religious competence, who can effortlessly blend into the culture, but whose faith is devoid of reverence, risk, growth, and power.
In this blog series, I want to cover four signs that you are becoming a “professional Christian,” and how, through God’s grace and power, you can resist this gradual dulling of your faith and regain the revolutionary relationship God created you for.
Four Signs That You Are Becoming a “professional Christian.”
Sign #1: No Reverence
The first step on the road to becoming a professional Christian is a loss of reverence.
We become so familiar with the Bible, the Church, and even God Himself that we lose all sense of awe.
Over Easter, I saw a meme that showed a cartoon Jesus and a tagline that said, “I died! April fools!” and another one that exclaimed, “YOLO. JK. BRB!” (You Only Live Once. Just Kidding. Be Right Back!)
Some of you may have seen these and even laughed. I didn’t.
A Muslim would never dare depict the prophet Mohammed as a cartoon, and yet Christians seem to have no problem treating Jesus with about as much reverence as a buddy in a bar. I’m not trying to come off as self-righteous or condemning, but I think we need to consider very carefully what it means if we are OK with treating Jesus in such a casual way.
And it’s more than just internet memes. A shockingly casual view of God pervades much of our church culture today. Our prayers become trite and cliche, and we make jokes about God and the Bible.
This happens when we allow God to become “a subject” and lose sight of who He truly is.
We need an encounter with the holiness of God.
Isaiah had just such a moment, and the impact was profound. Upon seeing God, he cried out, “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:5)
Isaiah was irrevocably transformed by gaining an accurate view of God. This not only overwhelmed him with awe but also shed light on his own depraved condition and need for God.
Gaining an accurate picture of God changes everything.
As theologian A.W Tozer wrote, “Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, ‘What comes into your mind when you think about God?’ we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man.”
When we see and experience the power and presence of God, we can longer treat Him, His Word, or His Church as a joke. Our prayers are deep and desperate because we recognize that the Creator of the Universe is listening to us.
A professional Christian is content with a low view of God, but we can’t be. We need to daily ask God to reveal the fullness of who He is to us.
We need our own Isaiah moment. This is the remedy against irreverence, and the path to the extraordinary life we are promised in Jesus.