Relaxed Christianity: Episode One > I’m hoping to run this theme for a while. Let God do the heavy lifting! Relax! He loves you! Learn to live more in the supernatural rather than the natural! We are the Bride in this thing. Let your Husband be the strong man! Understand what God is saying in Psalms 127!

“It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late, and work your worried fingers to the bone. Don’t you know he enjoys giving rest to those he loves?” (Verse 2)

Did you know that was even in the Bible? It took me a long time to understand there is a hard way and easier way to do almost everything in life, especially when you add God into the equation, because God adds a supernatural potential.

The American mindset is very much performance oriented. We were raised this way. Our movies and commercials constantly preach it to us. Our Pastors also preach it from the church pulpits across this nation. For a long time I wrestled with how Psalms 127, the first two verses, how they fit with what I constantly heard from pulpits. And other scriptures I was also aware of. I gradually began living a different way in Christ and found myself flowing against the current of my country, culture, and church. But you know what? I didn’t care anymore!

What I found was so enjoyable and rich that I no longer cared what others thought. What I found was so good, I felt sorry for the performance oriented people, as I had also been for many years. I know that life! But Psalms 127 is so much better! So is Psalms 23. Think about it.

He makes me to LIE DOWN in GREEN PASTURES. (Do you feel the peace in those words?) He leads me beside the STILL waters. (Not the rushing waters?) He RESTORES my soul. (He does!!!) He leads me in paths of RIGHTEOUSNESS for his name sake. And yes, though I walk through the valley of death, I have NO FEAR!

The whole chapter of Psalms 23 speaks of a life so serene and peaceful that our minds boggle at the thought, and yet it is God’s will for us. So why am I running all the time? Why am I stressed and seeking a high standard of performance? Do we realize Jesus said only one thing was important? Only one thing??? Ahhh, but that is the rub, isn’t it, because we don’t believe him. We don’t believe Jesus. We are a Christian who does not fully believe Jesus. This one is hard for us materialistic Christian Americans. We have so many important irons in the fire! How can there only be ONE, Lord? And more importantly, how do we live that peaceful life?

I was at a funeral just yesterday, the mother-in-law of a good friend. I did not really know her. But I watched person after person walk to the front and speak of how much this woman, who lived to be 92, had affected them to the good, and she did it in very simple ways.

I thought of my own parents when they passed. There were very few who rose to say anything. My parents went to Church, but were also very private people. It’s taken me a long time to realize the importance of just plain old “fellowship” with people! And I mean FELLOWSHIP! It’s not what you can get in a Sunday morning church service! FELLOWSHIP can be more important than many things we get hung up on.

This lady lived very ordinary. Her and her husband never had much money or a fancy house. However…she was known for her LOVE of everyone…her insistence of sharing food with you… and they would play cards and drink coffee all night long! In those kinds of ways she totally affected her family and anyone that happened to come around. Hhmmm. She had a good time loving and enjoying people and life. And that is the God I serve. That’s the Bible I read.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep.”

Why am I working so hard to build something only He can build? Am I making it hard because I have the wrong strategy? Jesus was always trying to tell us how simple this thing really is. With God, less really is more! He said only ONE thing is important! The rest is all small stuff! Only one thing is big! The story is in Luke 10.

“As they continued their travel, Jesus entered a village. A woman by the name of Martha welcomed him and made him feel quite at home. She had a sister, Mary, who sat before the Master, hanging on every word he said. But Martha was pulled away by all she had to do in the kitchen. Later, she stepped in, interrupting them, ‘Master, don’t you care that my sister has abandoned the kitchen to me? Tell her to lend me a hand.’ “

“The Master said, ‘Martha, dear Martha, you’re fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up OVER NOTHING. ONE THING ONLY IS ESSENTIAL, and Mary has chosen it — it’s the main course, and won’t be taken from her.” (Luke 10: 38-40 Message Bible)

Martha did not expect to be the one in the wrong. Jesus said it lovingly, but she actually got rebuked! Can you imagine her surprise and embarrassment? Did she now regret inviting the Master into her home and working so hard for Him? You see, it’s not like we think, is it. As His Bride, I just want to be beautiful in His sight. What is beautiful to God? Faith. Love. Family. Truth. Simplicity. Sharing. Etc. But we are affected by culture, and many things not spoken highly of in God’s Word. We elevate things we should not, and make them idols.

Speaking of sisters, here is what I mean that I don’t fit the “norm” anymore. I mean, how far do you go with this? I decided some time back that I would be cremated. Funerals have become big business taking advantage of grieving people. Society pressures us to spend a lot of money, even money we don’t have, to show respect for loved ones who have passed. “Oh, I guess they didn’t love their mother much. Look at that cheap casket.” I think it’s awful, and my wife and I both decided the same. Once my soul has left this body it is nothing but a vacant house! It means nothing! I’m not in that rotting corpse of flesh! My dad also joined us in this, but not my mom, and not my sister. (Sorry to be so graphic, but we need truth. Somebody has to say it.)

My mom needed her final spotlight. The insurance did not cover all the expense of it, even though they had pretty good insurance. But my mom had the whole show, including the trip to a grave yard where a plot waited. Only problem was, she still had no tombstone. And we already spent money she did not have. The money was gone! Now my sister is bugging us for a tombstone! She got rather heated about this. She cannot even pay her own medical bills but somehow has money for a tombstone? She is very upset with me. But after a while you get use to people not understanding you, even Pastors!

I don’t know if we will ever have the money for a headstone or not. My wife or I will not have one. Do unto others as you do for yourself? But here is the thing, Jesus also told one person to let the dead bury the dead! That’s pretty hard! Now this is what I mean. Do we really believe Jesus? If so, how are we so hung up on so many material things? How do we work our fingers to the bone, stress, run, and worry to “perform” according to this world’s values rather than our Kingdom of God values?

So… I have a lot more to say on this. This barely opens the door on this subject. We had a big volley ball game with our kids this last week. I saw more honesty and love playing volley ball than in most church services. We all drew closer as a family, and we affected some others who were there. I got to witness to a man who probably don’t have more than a couple years left, at best. He really opened up to me, because we were just being REAL. God’s love was flowing, it was simplicity at its’ best, and we all really enjoyed the day. We’re still talking about it.

I challenge you to take time to read our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, and really consider what He is preaching. Psalms 23 also. Really think about what our Bible is saying to us. Compare it to the peer pressure you may feel from our culture, or even other Christians, everyday. But who you going to believe? Who you going to obey? Man, or God? We have a lot more to say on this.

I chose the woman I married, partly because we were so comfortable together. We could talk about anything, or say nothing at all. We were relaxed together. We were ourself together. It wasn’t about some performance, but we loved being in each other’s presence, just being together. That is what God wants too. That is salvation. It is a marriage. We are drawn to each other in love. The one thing that is important is God’s Presence in our life. That’s what Mary understood and Martha did not. If we have that, then everything else becomes small stuff our God is well-able to handle. RELAX! ENJOY! Pray. Stay in faith. Trust Him. Love. Have fun. Enjoy people. Share God with them. Let them know how good God really is.

To be continued. Christian Minimalism??? I call it, keeping things simple.