The God Who Contradicts Me

 There has been a lot of research lately on the "state of faith and religion in the United States."  I stumbled across a good summary of it in USA Today this week, and recommend it to you.  It's called "More Americans Tailor Their Religion To Fit Their Needs," and clearly describes - with reference to some research - what I have observed in ministry.  Click Here to read the USA Today article and get the full context for my post.

The article speaks of "America's drift from clearly defined religious denominations to faiths cut to fit personal preferences."  Notice the plural there: "faiths."

Not that this is new, of course.  The Old Testament book Judges summarizes the period of Israel's history that it records by saying "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Judges 21:25 (ESV)

This sort of "figuring it out as I go" approach to faith leads to some interesting - for me troubling - observations.  For instance, the article points to research by George Barna that identifies the only two particular measures of faith in practice in the US that have gone up over the past twenty years:

• More people have "accepted Jesus as their savior and expect to go to heaven."
• More people say they have not been to a church in the past six months.

Clearly, the idea of a "relationship with Jesus" has become increasingly disconnected with having a "relationship with a church."  

Drill down a bit deeper and we read, 

When (Barna) measures people by their belief in seven essential doctrines, defined by the National Association of Evangelicals' Statement of Faith, only 7% of those surveyed qualified.  Barna laments, "People say, 'I believe in God.  I believe the Bible is a good book. And then I believe whatever I want.'"

The article goes on to introduce - taken from Robert Bellah's seminal book Habits of the Heart - a woman named Sheila who calls her faith "Sheilaism."  "Just my own little voice. .  .  . It's just try to love yourself and be gentle with yourself.  You know, I guess, take care of each other."

As I listen and interact with people, I meet plenty of people with their own faith like Sheila.  Toms with Tomism, Sues with Sueism and on and on.  I think it is a cultural reflex - meaning we are all prone to it - to think that a faith that is personal gets to be personally defined.  

Certainly, the obvious danger to recognize here is that we will be prone to define a faith for ourselves that is in no meaningful way related to the "faith once and for all delivered to the saints."  Jude 3

The real danger is more dangerous than that though.  Any faith that is tailor cut to our needs/desires/convictions will be a faith of our own making and finally, a faith only in us.  No wonder Sheila called it "Sheilaism."  When we ourselves become the final touchstone for what we choose to believe, we set ourselves up as our own god.  "Meism" is not a personal faith.  It is self-trust and self-worship. It is in fact, what the Bible would call "idolatry."  We end up replacing the God of the Bible with ourselves as our own personal god.

I was surprised the first time I heard Tim Keller speak plainly about the God of the Bible being a God who contradicts us at some point.  I now see that contradiction as a reflection of the difference between the True God, and a god of my own making.  As I have come to increasingly face my own brokenness, and recognize my own drift towards remaking a god after my own image or convictions or convenience, I have grown increasingly thankful for - and dependent on - other  people who can help me tear down my own idols and see more clearly the "God who contradicts."  I am thankful that He contradicts my performance with His grace.  My need with His provision.  My fear with His peace.

Those who know me, understand that I will admit to a measure of sympathy for the increasing number of people who are pursuing Jesus without connection to a church.  I have received - and sadly I have given - plenty of "contradiction" for people that was no more than guilt, condescension and self-righteousness.  That reality does not change the fact that I desperately need - we ALL desperately need - a safe place to be contradicted by the Gospel of Grace.  A place where we can lay aside our own self-righteousness, or fear, or pride or addiction and receive instead, the life and love that Jesus paid for on our behalf from the cross.