Don’t worry about others, just take time to seek God in your own way

Published 11:44 pm Monday, June 22, 2009

Church Corner

How often do you change?

I’m not talking about your underwear. Or your favorite food. And I don’t mean your favorite sports team (if you ever change that, it’s because the devil made you do it.) What I mean is this: when was the last time you grew, transformed, evolved? Are you the same person this year as you were last year, or are you kinder and gentler and wiser and more in love with people?

Change isn’t always a good thing. Sometimes people change the wrong things for the wrong reasons. A different hairstyle or a different car or a different job won’t make you a better person. Neither will losing or gaining weight. Yet those are the things we focus on when we want to evolve. And it leads to a kind of change-worship. You see it in church when everyone is trying to jump on the latest fad, as if being hip or cool or “today” is the key to spiritual maturity. It isn’t and it never has been.

But we often think it is the key. In the story of Jesus there’s this moment when he is questioned about his “new paradigm” for faith. “Your disciples don’t fast,” the Old Schoolers complained. “They don’t do the old stuff we’re used to. What’s up with that?” And so Jesus told them a story about new wine and old wine, about sewing patches made from new material on clothes made of old material.

Some people think his point was that we should always embrace change. We should always look for whatever’s new and seek the latest. But look closer. That’s not what he was saying at all. His point was, “Don’t get uptight about all these outward changes; what matters is inside changes – what matters is your heart.”

Let me ask you a question. Could you see yourself being part of a church where people wear polyester and play the organ every week? No? Why not? If you can’t imagine such a thing, it says more about you than them. A bunch of folks in suits and ties who love each other and love God will trump a crowd of dudes in hip jeans and Zumiez/Buckle/Lucky T-shirts who don’t love people and don’t love God every single time. And vice-versa. It’s no contest. Around our church, we have people in every category. It’s all good. Who cares? The main thing is, do we love one another?

Have you figured this out yet?

Let me invite you to stop looking for the most conservative or most liberal church, or the hippest or the least hip church, or the largest or the smallest or the youngest or the oldest or the most urban or the most country church, and settle for the one down the road instead. (And God forbid you should ever look for a church full of people the same color as you. Nothing could be more idiotic than that.) It’s important that you understand this. Because no matter where you go, you’re still you; and you will stay the same forever if you don’t change on the inside – if you don’t choose to learn how to love people as they are and love God as he is.

Look, Jesus said there’s only one way to God – through him. But he also taught that we follow him in all sorts of ways. So give your neighbor a break. Stop obsessing over how they look or talk or dress or worship. And give yourself some space to seek God in your own way, because he has made a wonderful promise: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

Here’s to a different you. A better one. A face you can smile at when you look in the mirror.

I’ll see you on Sunday. Be true!