Have you ever watched a movie that was “based on a true story” and then become familiar with the original narrative on which the movie was based? Ya, most of the time you realize that there were only a few small details of the real story which actually made it into the movie. The rest was heavily redacted and embellished. It’s always disappointing to me when that happens.
The more I’ve studied the origin story of the Christian religion, the more I’ve seen this kind of parallel. The movie really has little to do with the real thing.
If you would have asked me fifteen years ago when was it that I become a Christian, I would have told you that it happened when I said the “sinners prayer” at the age of 5, sitting at the kitchen table with my mother.
Just like a toggle switch.
One moment, I was spiritually dead and bound for hell because of my sin and separation from God —at the tender age of five. And then, as soon as I said “amen”, I was magically transformed. Spiritually alive, forgiven and bound for eternal bliss in heaven. The whole purpose of being a “Christian” was to believe in the right things so that I could escape this world one day (especially Gods eternal wrath in hell). In the meanwhile, though, it was important that I live according to the rules of the faith so that I could prove by my life that the prayer really did take effect and I wasn’t just trying to buy fire insurance.
If you ask me the same question nowadays, I would tell you that I probably haven’t fully become a Christian yet. I now see it less like a toggle switch and more like a dimmer switch. I no longer conflate “being a Christian” with giving mental assent to certain doctrinal commitments. I see being a “Christian” as living out of who I truly am as an expression of God’s creative energy…just as Jesus did and modelled for us to follow. I was never “not right with God”. I was never separated from my source of life. I was never bound for some place called “hell”. Except for in my mind.
Some days I’m more “Christian” than others. Sometimes I fluctuate from being more to less “Christian” in the course of minutes. For example, I can wake up in the morning fully aware of my union with God and recognizing the same in others, blessing and encouraging others…until I get on the highway and some idiot in a Buick is going 20kmh under the speed limit in MY PASSING LANE!!!
Somehow, I just can’t picture Jesus giving that guy a close up look of the chrome grill on his Ford superduty 4X4 in the rear view mirror like I sometimes do.
Becoming a Christian—a follower of the way of Christ is more about recognizing identity and authentic reality than anything else. It really has little to do with “going to heaven” someday (though I do believe in, not an afterlife, but rather a continuation of life immersed in and fully aware of perfect love) and more about how we participate in making this world a more loving and equitable place in the here and now.
You see, when I recognize and understand that I am indeed an expression of God with divine nature and origin, it gives me pause. It causes me to behave differently. When I recognize you as the same as me, it causes me to treat you with reverence. The problem for me is that I get so distracted by the things that people do and I conflate their behaviour (and sometimes their appearance) with their ontological reality. This is when I treat others poorly. This is when I assign less value to others than what God has already given them.
That’s the beauty of the way of Jesus. He always saw past peoples actions and recognized the hurt that caused it in the first place. He saw the intrinsic value in everyone. Never once did He have an “altar call”, getting people to pray the “sinners prayer” after him so that they could become valuable and acceptable in God’s eyes. Rather, He introduced people to a new way of living. He invited us to participate in the reality where we have all been assigned the value of “priceless” and cannot be devalued. A reality where there is no lack of resources—or love. He invited us to let go of our own egos, to risk our reputations, our wealth, our privilege so that others could benefit.
On the surface, it does seem awfully risky until you realize that there really is no lack—that we live in a universe of abundance. That ultimate reality is indeed others-empowering, self emptying love.
I think that one of the greatest Christians in modern time was a Hindu. Mahatma Ghandi. He was a man who did not embrace the “right beliefs” (according to your typical evangelical statement of faith), but read the beatitudes every day and let that narrative shape his life long praxis.
What does it look like to become a Christian? For me, it means not getting pissed off at the driver of the Buick, but recognizing him as an expression of God. It means not responding with or endorsing the use of retaliatory violence. It means working towards the restoration of relationships and shunning vindictive “justice” of any sort. It means prioritizing my time with my wife and children. As a business owner, it means treating my employees with dignity and fairness, same with my customers. It means not voting for political systems and leaders who participate in and stand for corruption and the disempowerment of the vulnerable.
Jesus, when asked about what the greatest commandment is, responded by saying “To love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all your soul and with all of your mind and with all of your strength”—and then added “love your neighbour as yourself”. That to me, really sums up what it means to become a Christian. To love and to worship God IS to love those made in God’s image.
Am I a Christian? Not always, but I do aspire to become one.