Thrift Jesus
I love hand me down clothes. When I bought a backpack I got a used one so it was already broken in; maybe the other hikers wouldn’t know I was a noob. I seriously dig second hand stuff. And I love Goodwill. Well, most of Goodwill. There are just some things that you don’t buy at Goodwill. It is completely outside my range of understanding that this store resells used underwear.
Some things are just not good second hand. Sushi, needles, and Jesus are all on the list of things that you really want to get new. I actually read a book by Glenn Packiam called Secondhand Jesus. He talks a lot about how much of our modern Christianity is second hand. We allow other people to seek God, and then wait for them to package him into TV dinners for us to consume.
For many years much of my relationship with God was second hand. I went to church and read my Bible but I relied heavily on other people to feed me spiritually. If I wasn’t able to attend an event, I felt starved in the God arena. Everything I knew about God I had heard second hand. It was like all of my theology was just internalized God gossip.
One day my brother was postulating the difference between eastern and western applications of Budhism and Hinduism. He said that in the East, followers of these religions often adhere to their creeds strictly and rigorously. They are motivated at a deep level because they are trying to please the universe. Westerners, on the other hand, often times attempt to adopt these same outward practices while missing their underlying meanings. They observe the earnestness of Eastern religions and, sensing something lacking in themselves, go out and sign up for the first hot yoga class they can.
This is a halfhearted imitation of a religion, and it is sadly what many people settle for in their encounters with God. We observe the genuine pursuit of God exhibited in the lives of friends, but are too busy or bored to try it ourselves. And so we settle for the used leftovers of our neighbor’s spirituality. We cram self help books into the void and regurgitate excellent truths without encountering the God of the Cloud first hand (Exodus 34:5).
“In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.” -Mark Twain
When I was fifteen, someone challenged me to start reading the Bible seriously. I began to eat it up and found myself discovering God for myself. My understanding of the Bible and of God was no longer based off of overheard conversations. I was right there reporting live from the scene. I was tasting it for myself. This changed my whole life.
Christianity, if lived only as a copied lifestyle, can be extremely exhausting. Without knowing God firsthand, it is all a bunch of hoops to jump through. It’s a mask to wear in order to fit in at the homecoming dance of perfection.
I’m have grown tired of the watered down apple juice version of Christianity. Give me a hundred proof Jesus, please and thank you. Nothing else really satisfies. Because they more filters we throw on Jesus, the more his message gets diluted in the stream of agendas and opinions. People crop Jesus from different vantage points to make him represent their political viewpoint or holiday toy drive.
This version of Jesus is like a scarecrow in a corn field. It is a strange mock-up that appears real from a distance. But it’s made of straw. The Jesus I serve is not a mascot for the church. He is the Bridegroom- waiting on the edge of His seat to whisk us away.
I refuse to remain a spiritual fledgling penguin, relying on the previously digested truths of my elders. I want to meet God first hand. Like Moses met him in a cloud. Like Tozer met him on the floor of his office. Like I have met him before on a hundred walks through fog or by light of stars.
“We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands.
He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him.
And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”
-1 John 1: 1–3
