“The Emaciated Christian” 2011

 

“The Emaciated Christian” 2011

                                  

                                                      By: Diane Rose Road

PART ONE:

If you’re very best friend in life was the most famous chef in the entire world, but you were personally struggling with anorexia, and rarely ate at all, would that friendship in any way be of personal benefit to your health? No, it would not.

What if you lived on the streets of a famously elegant city which was filled to overflowing with museums, culture, and art, and with a “Triple A” rated restaurant on every corner, but you were personally homeless, and were never even able to partake of the overflow of the abundance in this land because there were locks on the dumpsters, and guards hidden in the shadows to shoo away any of your kind?

Would you be benefited in any way by your geographical proximity to all of the wealth and the illustrious culinary genius of the chefs therein? Again, the answer is no. You would in truth be no more than an emaciated homeless citizen in a very wealthy land.

What then, if you were married to a man who was a tremendous provider, who looked dutifully after virtually all of your material needs?  He worked 40-plus hours every week at a high paying job, and with every waking moment not spent at his place of employment, he dutifully kept your home in perfect condition, and fully supplied, down to the last detail.  What if this man diligently labored, “on your behalf”, from the moment his feet hit the floor in the morning until his head hit the pillow at night, and never stopped for even a moment in the hours between, all the while proclaiming; “I do all of this because I love you!”

What if, you had for 30 years been trying to get this hard working man of yours to hear your pleas for just one thing from him that you would gladly trade all else for?  What if you told this man, “I need you; I don’t need you to work yourself into an early grave on my behalf, I don’t need all of these “things” you have surrounded me with, I just need you!  I need alone time, down time, TIME, with you!”

If this man, for all of his labor “on your behalf” had for those 30 years never stopped to give you the one thing you wanted, and needed most from him; would you really believe he loved you Maybe, he is just a “workaholic” you might logically conclude. Maybe he is just “keeping up with the Joneses” and doesn’t want to be seen as lacking in any material thing.  You would likely conclude that there could be countless motivations behind your husband’s actions that had nothing whatsoever to do with love for you, because after all; don’t we all give our time and attentions to those things, and those people whom we treasure the most, Don’t we?

How long do we suppose any relationship (marital or otherwise) would last if we never invested any of ourselves into it?  If we never held, hugged, or kissed the man we dated, do we suppose that we would ever get a ring from that man (figuratively or otherwise), and an invitation to “the dance”? It’s doubtful!

If we never fed our children, would they ever grow and reach maturity; marry, and raise children of their own?  No!  Why not?  Its simple - what you do not feed dies! Depending on the circumstances, and the situation, some things die a long, slow, painful death, while others die quickly from lack of proper nurture and attention. In either case, the cause of the inevitable death is that without proper nourishment, care, time and attention, any living thing becomes emaciated, starves, and ultimately dies.

Webster’ Online Dictionary defines the word Emaciated as follows:

1. Very thin especially from disease or hunger or cold; "emaciated bony hands".

2. Being thin, gaunt, lean, skinny or lank

3. Being haggard or peaky.

4. Being meager.

5. Being scraggy, bony, scrawny or skeletal.

6. Being slender, slim, reedy or slight.

7. Being weak, impotent, effete, feeble or frail.

 
8. Being limp, flaccid, nerveless, spineless or flabby.

9. Being barren, dry or sterile.

10. Being hungry or starving.

 

PART TWO:

In precisely the same way that we have all learned in life that one can be “lonely in a crowd” so too, we can find ourselves in a myriad of situations in life that belie (falsely represent) the truth of a matter.

An Oxymoron is defined as conjoining contradictory terms such as: deafening silence, cruel kindness, act naturally, genuine imitation, almost exactly, silent scream, passive aggression, clearly misunderstood, definite maybe, working vacation, and EMACIATED CHRISTIAN.

Before we delve any deeper into the subject of emaciation in any of its forms, let’s pause for a moment or two to look into some of the cause and affect aspects of this discussion that lead to the ultimate starvation of any living thing.

It is not always the case that an oxymoron is necessarily the verbalized expression of two conjoined and yet contradictory terms. We can, and often do wear “masks” that are not made of plastic or rubber, but have been carefully constructed utilizing such things as “popular opinion,” “appearances,” “pop culture,” and “political correctness”.

EXAMINING OUR “MOTIVES”

                                   

There can be many reasons for how we approach any “good thing” that we set our hearts and hands to doing. “Christianity” for example, if analyzed strictly through the lens of aforementioned criteria of: “popular opinion,” appearances,” pop culture,” and “political correctness,” demands that if I want to be seen as, or believed to be a “Christian,” then I will have to be very shrewd and skillful in how I do this “Christianity Thing” in order not to offend, and yet still manage to fit in with this new crowd and culture.

At times, without even really analyzing these thought processes long enough to recognize the hypocrisy, and even deceit in them, some opt to “put on airs” for anyone looking;  rather than submitting themselves to the “surgeons scalpel” so to speak.  They decide instead to put into place a series of “external evidences” of the more standardized version of Christianity.  The following then is just a small sampling of the thought process behind the ways this might play out day by day. 

I will first go out (one might decide), and get a Bible (“whether I ever read it or not is irrelevant”), I can mark it up to give it that “lived in” look, I will pick up some cross jewelry, a bumper sticker for my car (that doesn’t get too “preachy”), I will at a minimum put in an appearance at the local church of my choice on a semi-regular basis, (so long as that church doesn’t require me to walk the talk), I will join in on some of the “reindeer games” of the typical Christian, such as joining a Sunday school class,  singing in the choir, attending all of the socials etc., and I will whisper Amen , Praise God, even Halleluiah at all of the appropriate times (meaning only when in the company of other Christians).

 Because, after all, even Jesus Himself was known to keep company with all sorts of nefarious locals such as tax collectors, “publicans” and sinners like Mary Magdalene; I see no harm in spending some occasional time at the local pub with friends who are no worse than these.  Also, Jesus’ first recorded miracle was to turn water into wine, so clearly there is nothing wrong with taking a little nip every now and again!

Furthermore, the very Bible that those “Ultra Conservative Bible Thumpers” use to call me out on my “lifestyle choices” says somewhere that I have liberty in Christ, and have no need that anyone should tell me anything. And PS, what is this whole “Context” thing anyway, could somebody please just speak plain English!?

When I need more information on a situation (strictly so that I know how to more effectively pray) I am not engaging in, or in any way encouraging “Gossip” Common!

Okay, so I will admit that I maybe do spend a little more time each day “unwinding” from all of the stress in my life, than I do praying, or reading the Bible and stuff like that, but there is a good reason for that!  I am what you call “a doer of the word” and not a “hearer only!”  After all, I have already graduated from going to Sunday school classes to teaching them.  I now not only sing in the choir, I am the Worship Leader for cryin out loud! My phone rings, and the texts come in non-stop in my every waking moment, (and even when I am sleeping), I go to a prayer meeting once a week, donate to the needy, and my life in general is full to overflowing with all of the activities and “requirements” that all of this places on me”.  There are only so many hours in the day, you know, what more could God expect of me; I am “serving Him” now in one way or another for more hours a week than I work my full time job!

How dare anyone hang some kind of label on me like “Emaciated Christian, Can’t you see it?  I have nothing left to give!  I am all used up! 

I did not wake up this morning and decide that today felt like a really great day to stomp on the heads and hearts of as many people as I could reach with this article. 

In fact, if you have not already figured it out, the argumentative woman with the all consuming “issues” whose quotes you have been reading has a name, and it is not coincidentally the same as my own.

While not every one of the situations, analogies, and even choices used as illustrations are of my personal story, I did in fact look and at last finally “see” the face and form of an utterly “Emaciated Christian” staring back at me while on that particular day, as on so many which had proceeded it, I was rushing past the mirror.

I had become unnecessarily bloodied beyond recognition by my own choices, decisions, missteps, and assumptions, all the while having completely side stepped the “main thing!”  We have all heard it wisely advised that we remember to “keep the main thing, THE MAIN THING!”

If you have ever done so at all, then reach back please into the very recesses of your minds, and retrieve the moment in your own personal history, that first brought you to your knees at the foot of the cross.  What was that condition of your own heart which so longed for the answers found that day at the feet of Jesus?

Wasn’t it the realization that you were ultimately and infinitely LOST in your own sins, apart from the price Jesus had already personally paid at Calvary in taking your sins upon Himself and paying for them there  IN FULL?  Did you hear on that day of His dying declaration that; “it is FINISHED!?” 

I did!  I both heard, and believed, and yet somehow, remarkably when I rose to my feet, without realizing it, I had picked all of my now completely “forgiven sins” back up and carried them home with me that day, even if only in my mind.

The Bible clearly tells us (in Ephesians 2:8-9) that we have been saved by grace through faith; and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works... and yet most of us still manage to walk away from the foot of the cross still believing that surely there are things that we must DO to somehow “seal the deal”. 

Our fellow man helps us out immensely with this theory by “piling on” all of the manmade rules and regulations that make up “religion” today. God made it so simple; we have made it so very complex.

The very moment we rise to our feet, and walk away from the foot of the cross, from the presence of our Savior, we at once begin to hear, heed, and obey other voices. These voices are many, and they therefore come in many forms.  They come with the voice of “rules,” “regulations,” expectations,” “standards,” “religion,” and “the opinions of man,” just to name a few. Some of these voices are infinitely familiar to us. We know and recognize them at once, but none of these voices are in any way at all like the One we heard while at the foot of the cross.

It isn’t long (sometimes we don’t even make it all the way home) before we begin to wonder “was I ever really “saved”, or “born again” at all?”  “Who do you think you are kidding anyway!” the voices demand to know.  “Everyone knows who and what you really are, and all of the terrible things that you have done!”  They continue.  “As soon as those “Christians” learn what we all already know about you, they will “drop you like a hot potato!”  “Why set yourself up for all of the shame and humiliation of being “found out!?” Does any of this sound familiar?  Of course it does.  It’s the voice of condemnation.  We all know and recognize that voice very well indeed. 

Would you like to know “The Secret” to overcoming every lying, hissing, chirping, clucking, accusatory voice that has ever, or will ever again try to whisper in your ear from this moment forward, until the end of time?

The “Secret” though hidden in plain site is in knowing, and finally accepting, that if we could have done anything at all in the sum of all of our life’s works to be saved, then we would not have so desperately needed Jesus in the first place, and we can be sure that He would not have gone to that gruesome cross if there had been any other way to bring us into right standing with the Father.

All that the sum of our efforts have ever, or will ever manage to do, is to suck the very life out of us, spit us out, and walk away leaving us emaciated, battered, broken, bloodied and emptied out on the pavement. Saved?  Maybe -- but not so that anyone would notice.

Please look with me if you will at John 10:10 where in one simple statement of fact, Jesus manages to unpack and “unclutter” all that we have managed to make so very complicated.  In it we are told with a simple declarative statement that: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy”; “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  In case you somehow missed it, I will repeat: Jesus has boldly declared to us all “I have come that you might have LIFE and that more abundantly!”  

“How?” you might logically ask.  Please continue with me into the next article in this series called “Have you met my Jesus?” In it, we will pick up where we left off in the discussion of the “voices and opinions” which we have chosen (whether knowingly or not) to listen to, and have then patterned our lives after.  Question: How has that been working so far?