When did our religion turn into a drive thru? When did it turn into a dunk and do nots? Get baptised. Do not drink. Do not smoke. Do not have sex. Do not gamble. Is this really what the gospel is about?
In an email to a friend recently I said that I feel as if the religion has been wrung out of me and that my spiritualism is the only thing left. Memorizing verses and nodding my head “yes” to the theological and political views of my conservative community is not satisfying and is not the Gospel to me. Selling Thirty One bags and swaring by Young Living oils is not the prerequisites of a christian woman in my eyes.
Instead of sharing our evil and allowing our weaknesses to let God’s grace shine, we keep everything at surface level. We conceal our physical, mental, and spiritual blemishes. The result is that as Americans, our evil is concealed much more than here in Zimbabwe.
But this doesn’t make the evil any less or more powerful. The people here grasp onto witch doctors like we grasp onto our MAC cosmetics. I recently got to witness a baptism here in the lake as a crocodile sat on an island a few yards away. And as the man was dunked (many times) and the men prayed over him in Shona you could feel the spiritual battle happening on the bank. And in the middle of the commotion, the crocodile slipped into the water.This is gospel.
Gospel is sometimes God calls us into water with crocodiles. Gospel is sometimes God usues that cigarette break as a discipleship opportunity. Gospel is God using those beers with friends as a testimonial event (even if those beers are prefaced by shots). Gospel is sometimes He calls you to go to a Pride event…to support it, not to slander those celebrating what they feel are freedoms. Gospel is never judging, unless of course you are without sin, then by all means fill your pockets with stones before you go.
Gospel is meeting people where they are and bringing His grace with you. Gospel is using the Holy Spirit that the son of God left us with a little more than the book godly men did. Gospel is redemption that exceeds condemnation. Gospel is good news. Gospel is truth.
And what happens when the religion is wrung out of us is a beautiful thing.
When he gently, and sometimes painfully, squeezes the lies and preconceived notions of Himself out of us…
When the Gospel and Holy Spirit and the fear of the Lord are the only things left in us…
This is when we can be hung out to dry, to bask in the light of His glory, to dance in the wind of His righteousness.
This is freedom and this is gospel.
