The Art of Being “Like”, Part 2

There’s this point in life that we all come to where status quo just isn’t enough.  It’s the day that you wake up and realize that you aren’t satisfied just fitting in and you start to question the life you are living.  It’s not about trying to find out if you are wrong as much as it is trying to find out why you follow what others do or expect you to do.  We all go through it to some extent.  For some of us it happens early in life when we purposely start to act differently than others, usually because it’s fun.  For others it hits in the teen years as we are questioning “Why should I follow the establishment” and the anarchist comes out in us.  For some of us, though, it happens after we’ve lived our lives pretty much following the crowd.  We go to work dressed like our peers, do our work, and go home.  We all listen to the same radio stations.  We watch the same tv shows so that we have something to talk about.  We drive certain cars because those are what successful people drive.  We share restaraunts, clothing stores, movies, coffee shops, sports teams, entertainment venues, hobbies, places to live, children’s names, and a thousand other aspects of our lives with the ideals that society gives us that have been catagorized as “acceptable”.  We even see it in the midst of our presidential elections that become popularity contests instead of actual concern for who would be our greatest leader.  Why, then, would we not follow the same pattern with our spirituality?

Now, if you’re the type of person who beats their own drum and then marches wherever their heart leads then this really doesn’t relate to you.  You probably find this writing quite confusing.  For the other 99% of the population. though, we’ve just hit a nerve.  For thousands of years there has been acceptable and unacceptable.  If you looked like the majority of society then you were accepted.  If you didn’t then you were ridiculed or someone tried to change your look to fit in.  (Wouldn’t want the to feel like an outcast, now would we?)  We praise individuality when it creates a new trend, but the oddball in the group is not seen as being “individualistic”.  They are simply weird.  In most areas of our lives the crowd rules.

 We’ve done the same thing with our churches and most religions.  There’s a look, a feel, an acceptable way of doing things.  It gives us comfort.  We try not to paint outside the lines too much because then we have to answer questions about why we want to change something that already works.  We start to use terms like “truth”, “absolute truth”, “inherent”, and “the way God intended it” so that we have a rock to stand on whenever someone comes along that thinks differently than we do.  You can’t argue with truth, now can you?  Our organizations take on a certain look where people start to dress and talk in ways that make them easily identifiable.  Our places of worship are creations cut from the same stone.  They might not look exactly the same, but they all take on the same format and basic design.  We’ve even created new designs to get away from that but have now developed a new standard of duplication.

Some of us find eventually that following this pied piper type of living doesn’t work for us.  It’s a rather liberating, but scary prospect.  The thought of walking away from the things you’ve held dear and forging into the unknown can strike fear in even the strongest of hearts.  It means leaving alot of the relationships that you knew before.  Well, that is, it means leaving the ones that just don’t (or don’t want to) understand.  It also means changing your way of thinking.  “Perhaps the things we did before weren’t as important as I thought they were.” But it also means opening yourself up to a whole new world of relationships and experiences that you would never have had before.

And here’s where it gets REALLY interesting……

Continued in Part 3

The Art of Being “Like”, Part 1

I’ve recently realized a difficulty that exists within my own life.  I’m not talking about an affliction or a major handicap.  This is a difficulty.  It’s something that can be overcome, but it’s a stumbling block to getting where I want (or need) to go.  I actually believe that I’m not alone in having this “difficulty”.  I believe there are many of us living this daily drudge of a life that suffer from the same conundrum.  It has taken me a long time and alot of soul searching to really realize what the difficulty is and that it even exists.  I’ve gone for years believing that it was something for other people to struggle with, but not for me.  This wasn’t my problem.  I was fine.

Yet………………deep down there it was.  I see it.  I realize it.  I don’t exactly know what to do with it.  It’s there, though.  Believe me, it is there.  It’s a real struggle.  It has a name, too.  It’s called “Being Christlike”.

I don’t do it very well.  In fact, I suck at it.  (I’m not real sure that Christ would have ever said “suck” in the first place.  See?  There I go!)  I have this inate ability to take an idea that is pure, without any strings attached, and turn it into a self-serving mess of egotistical promotion that highlights my own need for reassurance.  Sometimes I actually do things that would make others believe that I think the world revolves around me!  It doesn’t actually, I’ve been told.  (I do believe that I have my own gravitational pull, though…)  Even though I see myself as the center of my own universe I have to admit that I am wrong.  I’m not.  Well, that is if I actually take the time to look at things through the eyes of someone better than myself.

You see, this is the problem with Christianity.  It’s a really cool club to be a part of up until the time that you realize that there’s more to it than just “being a member”.  It would be so great if we could just sign up for “Christ-classes”, learn the rules, say the oath, and then just “be a Christian” for the rest of our lives.  (Kind of like being a part of a “spiritual Fan Club”)  I’d even pay dues to do it, to tell the truth.  I think ,to an extent, I have alot of times.   My participation in Christianity really started that way.  I walked “the Gauntlet” to the front of the church, said the solemn oath, gave the secret handshake (if you don’t know it you can’t be a part of the club…), and then was welcomed in as a member with an honorary church membership, a copy of the rules and regulations manual, and a discount at the local store for buying “cool club paraphernalia”.  Then all the activities started (and this club knows you don’t want to be bored!).  There were classes to attend, extracurricular activity groups to be a part of, socials to go to, and even a leadership structure that you could work your way up through.  Everything that I could want to feel like I was included!

But what was I a part of?  What was “Being a Christian” all about?  What was all of this activity for?  I mean, it was great!  It pretty much took up all of my time.  I became a part of this exclusive group.  There were things that I needed to do (or not do) to really be respected in the group, but I was IN.  As a matter of fact, being a part of this group became more important than my other relationships.  Sure, I KNEW people that weren’t a part of the group, but it started to get a bit tough to really have conversations with them.  They didn’t understand.  They didn’t “get it”.  It actually got to the point that alot of those relationships started to fade away.  We didn’t really have anything in common anymore.  I guess, you could say, they were outsiders.

All of that could have been fixed, though.  The cool thing about the group was the recruiting process.  Once you became a member your whole goal from there became to make other people members, too.  The organization was great at helping you, too.  They had pamphlets, videos, posters, events to bring your friends to, all kinds of stuff.  All you had to do was get the people in the door and they would do the rest.  Easy!!  Then you would have something in common with your friends again.  As long as they abide by the rules in the rule book everything would be cool.  Now, I’m not saying that we kicked people out for breaking the rules, but………………..geez, you couldn’t have people that didn’t fit in, you know?

Yeah, it was a pretty cool club.  It made things easy.  It was all clear.  Cut and dried.  But what happens when you wake up one day and look around at things in a new way?  What if there’s more to all of this than being a part of the club?  What about that idea of “being Christlike”?  What do you do then?

 I had to find out for myself one day.

Continued in Part 2