Thursday, September 25, 2008

Spiritual Bulimia: The State of the Church Today

Well, I just did a Google search of the phrase "spiritual bulimia" and found quite a few different blogs and sites with some kind of discussion or monologue about the topic. I hadn't really thought of it as a common thought, but when have I ever really come up with something all that unique as a way of wording things? (Although my statement of "emotional vertigo" as an affect of change in one's life seemed to impress my prof and peers the other day in Leadership & Administration..."

Anyway... my thoughts on this topic that I have found is less than original...

It seems that as Christians we are satisfied with our spiritual bulimia. We like to go to church on Sundays and Wednesday nights and gorge ourselves with spirituality, and God's presence, and the feel good "eat dessert first" praise and worship times. But, to me, it feels like there is something wrong; something missing. It seems that we are happy with our heavy spiritual meals once or twice a week, which may be filled with more junk food than we realize. Which makes me question in my own life: "What is missing in my 'spiritual diet'?"

What makes a healthy spiritual lifestyle? I have experienced times of spiritual dehydration, and lately have become increasingly thirsty for the Word, and for the Spirit.

Do we, as Christians, really have a healthy lifestyle? We go to church on Sunday, and maybe Wednesday nights, but other than that, how often do we really spend time in the Word, or in God's presence, or in prayer? Those are the "health foods" of Christianity. They are what keep us going! I have found myself lagging and dragging in my spiritual walk when I neglect these things!

I have also been wondering lately, how much do we hear in the Christian songs on the radio about God's power, but we do not see it in our lives? I have thought about that lately, since I do listen to "CCM" (Contemporary Christian Music, however horrid that some people think this genre is...). Some of these songs talk about seeing the sick healed, the dead raised, and broken hearts put back together! These songs are powerful! But I wonder who is going to "dive in" or be a "history maker"? We call on God in these songs to "rain down" His Holy Spirit, and to "touch our generation". But is He going to reach down and touch us if we are just singing these songs one time, with hardly any thought to what we are saying or asking? If we are not persistent in our devotion to Him we will continue to just seek His presence on Sunday mornings and forget about Him the rest of the week.

I only say all of this because I myself have not been spending as much time in prayer, or seeking His presence, or living out the Kingdom of God here on earth. In fact I have done a marvelous job at just the opposite it seems. I have become frustrated and jaded with church life and in relation to some people within the church in general. Maybe that's just what comes with a summer of being in ministry with other humans... who are just as faulty as I am. I have been doing more complaining than praising. And it's getting on my nerves.

So what is my point? I could go on forever with examples of the ways I have fallen short of living life how I believe that Christ calls it to be lived. The only thing I can do is humble myself in day to day worship... In living out my life for Christ. I am still trying to figure out the whole "living out the Kingdom here on earth" thing. I feel like it is sort of like living in the "Matrix"... like the next to last scene where Neo is shot, but not killed, because the Matrix is greater than the physics of the "real world" that we see. Such is Heaven when compaired to earth. I believe that when Paul said "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me", that he meant *all* things... Now the question is, "How do I live this Kingdom life here on earth?"

1 comment:

Holly said...

Wow. Great post, my friend.