Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Fast Food Jesus

Have you ever wondered what Christianity would be like if we could get our Jesus at a drive through? " yeah, um...i'll take the Trinity combo number one...light on the Holy Spirit though, I don't want to feel that guilt for the rest of the day..." " Does the kids meal still come with one of the twelve disciples? Im really trying to collect them all and Peter always seems to be out of stock!" " Today has been rough...can I get the BIGGIE size Jesus?" Doesn't sound quite right, does it? And yet, this is how we try to create a foundation for our Christian faith. We take Jesus in convenience sized portions, when it works for us, and rush ourselves through the motions, never stopping to enjoy Him and truly take him in. Think about eating your take out in the car...it's a rush, it's a balance, and if you're like me, you end up with hiccups, and lets face it, you really didn't taste a thing while you hoovered it in. Some of us do that with our time with God. We head off to work, turn the car into the "Rolling Confessional" with some Casting Crowns in the background, but are we really honoring God with that bracket of time we give Him, inbetween driving, pretending we aren't texting while we drive and making it to work. Yup, sounds like a quality Jesus meal to me. Do you even remember what He spoke to your heart? Did you even hear it? Life is crazy, no one can deny that. As we get older and the generation of multi-tasking becomes more and more prevalent, we try to multi-task the most intimate of relationships. But that, is not, in it's true beauty, how God wanted our relationship with him to be. Think about the last time you really enjoyed a meal with your family. You sat down, smelled the food, saw it all laid out before you, took your time with the bites and portions, maybe even came back for seconds and after all the coffee and conversation was over, someone brought out PIE! You laughed, you maybe even cried, or cried while you laughed, but those precious moments lock in your mind as memories of a treasured experience. That's how it should be. God wants us to sit with Him, take in all he has for us, get excited about what's to come, and when it has passed, grab a cup of coffee (if that's your thing) and talk about how amazing this time with Him has been. He wants us to give Him those moments, not because He is selfish, but because when we take time to really breathe Him in, He in turn gets to pour out His goodness for us, His plans for us and get us pumped about His future (PIE!!) to come. Take a breath and have some Selah with your Father...Calm your heart and get excited for the things He has in store for you. ...and there might even be "Pie"...