Talking the Talk vs. Walking the Walk | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Don Miller, Blue Like Jazz, writes in his post A Good Reason to Get Real

Miller writes

Richard Rohr in Everything Belongs talks about using the language of descent to make an ascent. That is, using the language of humility or spirituality to fit in or be accepted in a given culture.

The Bible contains a recurring phrase that goes something like this: they will get their reward in full…The context changes, of course, but the idea is the same. The idea is that we can really know God and walk with Him in peace, or we can use Him to fit in with a religious social group. The real reward is God, not the group. And besides, when we do things for real, we get both God and connection to the group, so why not be the real thing?

So how do we know if we are really spiritual, if we really love God? The answer lies in our actions. If we are talking one way and living another, we are just using the language of God to manipulate a group of people into affirming us. God says of us, then, that we have our reward in full. And He’s right. I don’t know about you, but I want more. I want the real stuff.

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· Very thought-provoking. Have you ever been in a Christian group in which everything thing everyone said was so shiny, so perfect? If one took everything people said at face value, then beyond doubt we had been with a group of perfectly surrendered Christians, who wanted nothing more than to discern and do God’s will, to reach unbelievers with the Gospel, or whatever the emphases of their particular church was.

If you say something contrarian, share a real struggle, the whole group looks at you pityingly and prays for you. Not that your struggle was anything out of the ordinary; voicing it however was. In such a group, people don’t explore what they really believe. They seek to give the right answer.

· So if fake Christianity, sounding like a committed, surrendered Christian, who loves God, loves people and only wants to do God’s will can bring rewards of social acceptance, how much more will the real thing? Don Miller asks.
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I Interestingly, the real thing might not necessarily bring social acceptance. People might find someone who honestly follows Christ with all her heart as threatening as they found Christ. The real reveals the fake.

In a group that have combined to pretend that the Emperor has no clothes, a truth-teller may not be welcome. In a group playing in the garden, someone who has been out to the holy wilds of following Christ, who has left the shore and paddled out to Aslan’s Own Country, might be very threatening and suspect.

However, Miller has a point. If the pretence is rewarded, how much greater will the rewards for the real thing be?

However, they may be entirely different. They will be from God, not the group. And they will stagger our imagination.

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