How did we get here?

Have you ever had one of those moments when you just, for one reason or another,
see everything differently?

For only a moment, it seems like the fog has been lifted from your brain.

And then the fog's back. And you can't even remember what you were thinking about. 

I believe in science, they call this a paradigm shift, or a gestalt switch - when all of a sudden, your perspective changes.

I had one of those on Sunday.

I was sitting in church, and the preacher was talking about some specific and minute matter concerning the "Christian Faith," as some would call it.

I pictured what this church would have looked like if we were the first church.

I imagined us in a tiny shack with a thatched roof, eating a meal together and discussing
"Christianity" in excited voices while passing the bread.

I imagined laughter, community, passion, freedom.

Whoever was preaching/talking was probably speaking words of encouragement, 

or talking about their personal struggles, or telling the rest of us how we could take action to 

further the Kingdom. 

Back to present time: at that moment, sitting in church, I could not comprehend how we got here. 

Church was intended for the crazy, the broken, the needy, the lost, the passionate.

I see far too many in church who are normal.

We are not called to be "normal." We are called to be different.

And I cannot understand why our church today consists of people
who look exactly like every other non-Christian.

Do we, the church, really want to look different than the rest of the world?

Because right now, the only thing setting us apart is some religious jewelry.

I know plenty of good people who aren't Christians. 

I know plenty of great people who aren't Christians.

And I know plenty of Christians who can vomit up verses all day but live complacently.

What, then, is the point of being a Christian, if anyone can be kind, and those of us who are Christians aren't even kind most of the time?

Jesus said that the pathway is narrow and few will find it. 

I believe we've bushwhacked that narrow pathway to allow any sort of behavior.

After all, if you say you love Jesus and you get baptized, you're set for eternity, right?

I think Jesus is calling us to more.