No pain, no gain

What American faith lacks: no pain, no gain.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Isn’t this true in so many ways? In our own lives, we pass through seasons, but we’re only passing through. In the larger sense, every generation grows up, raises up, and passes along, while the world changes, but really the same passions and problems govern us. I was looking through some of my previous writing, searching for something about persecution and hate, and I found this piece. Replace “San Bernardino shooting” and “Bombs in Brussels” with the events of the day, and the story doesn’t change, only the season.

Of course, America, and American Christians in particular, do have the opportunity to make larger seasonal changes, and to return to a purer version of the faith than what we see today. That is my hope. But the underpinnings of that effort are eroding day by day, and I don’t see the trend reversing soon, or easily. Enjoy a throwback from March, 2016, when the world was different, but the same.

Is your faith flagging? Bombs in Brussels, shootings in San Bernardino, a nasty political season—and where is God? We face these issues daily as they grind down our mustard seed of faith into powder.

If you’re a regular church-goer, you hear a sermon about the love of God on Sunday, then go back to the world on Monday. If you watch television regularly, you see all the filth and sin glorified on that box. If you follow sports, you see how many of our greatest athletes fall to perversions, violence, or money-worship. If you follow politics, all those things are kicked to an ever-more frenetic and exponential level.

How can a regular person super charge faith? What tools does God give to bring us to a place of victory? It’s His pain, our gain, but also no pain, no gain.

If faith is flagging, the first blame goes to spiritual laziness. As a culture, American Christians are spiritually lazy. Church makes it too easy, too clean, and too comfortable. In “Western” Christianity - the false distinction between a “laity” class and “clergy” makes us lazy. We’re children who want to play in the Christian pool and leave someone else to clean it for us. We are encouraged to read our Bibles, but if we don’t, we still go to church and hear a wonderful sermon.

In northern Kenya, I guarantee Christians are not spiritually lazy. Any given day Boko Haram can kick open the door, force allegiance to the Shahada (Islamic statement of faith) or offer death. Being a Christian in many places on the planet means death is an ever-present danger. Yet in those places, Christianity flourishes and grows. It’s because they have super charged faith.

We lack a sense of community—in America we’re closer to our fellow college football fans in many cases than our church family, who we only see on Sunday morning. Christian community in the U.S. is centered around church activities. When the activity ends, the parking lot empties, everyone to his own home. In China, church is at home, and it moves every week so the police don’t show up and jail everyone. The closest community is the community of super charged faith.

And in America, we underestimate the “cares of this world.” Mark 4:18-20: “Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

It’s easy to become rooted in a daily routine, but really our routine can be the thorns that rob us of the power of God’s Word and our faith in Christ. The worries and cares of this world are our enemy because they produce the desires for wealth, security, and things that choke out our desire for God.

What is the answer? In one word “persecution.” Persecution comes easy to the Christian. Just be a Christian and do the things that the Word of God calls us to do, and it will come.

Persecution drives us to God and causes us to increase our faith. It’s God’s super charger, and unfortunately, it doesn’t place our comfort before obedience to God’s word. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Jesus became weak, and allowed Himself to be executed on the cross, so that the Father could exalt His name above all other names. We celebrate this pain and exaltation on Easter. We should live it all year long.

Jesus said in Revelation 2, to the church at Smyrna, “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.”

Persecution is part of the Christian life, and we should expect it. If we avoid persecution, we are falling into the enemy’s hands. Jesus paid it all, it’s His pain and our gain. But we can’t be lazy, because to super charge your faith, it’s still no pain, no gain.