Take It All Away

I've been thinking a lot lately about why some people are so closed to the message of the Gospel. The real message is that God loves everyone, that we need salvation, but that salvation is a free gift for us. Who could hate such a message?

My first answer was that the message was being misrepresented and that's true. Many Christians are protesting loudly things like the legalization of homosexual marriage and some (*cough*Westboro Baptist Church*cough*) are making national headlines by protesting at funerals. Whether well-intentioned or not, the message from such protests is that the person is not ok, not lovable, not accepted...until they've changed and become more like the protesters.

But Jesus never demanded that people be like Him before He loved them. He didn't make them get saved before He healed them. They simply had to have faith that He could heal them, which is the same faith they might have accorded to one of the prophets. He hung out with prostitutes, tax collectors, adulterers, and thieves (that last one literally), but didn't seem to have made many friends in the church. His message is not that we have to be perfect, but that we can't be and yet He loves us anyway and offers to save us from ourselves.

The message has been corrupted by the church. People hear, "You're not good enough because you're not saved." Who would want a God that will only love them if they're perfect, since everyone knows they're not? Who would trust someone who spread such a message, since that person is a hypocrite?

Now, though, I think there's another reason why it's so hard for many non-Christians to believe. I have several friends who grew up in non-Christian homes or who rebelled as teens. Underage drinking, drugs, sex, shoplifting, and other things were done regularly, with sex being the one they were often most addicted to. When they became Christians, it was difficult for them to let go of that past life. Even if they were no longer committing the actions, they were thinking about doing them, longing to do them.

For someone without Christ, that may well be how they see the message: "Ok, I get salvation, but I have to wait until I'm dead to use it. You have no proof of an afterlife, so there's a chance I'm wasting my only chance to be happy. Also, if I can be saved any time before I die, why should I be saved now? I don't want to give up sex [or whatever else is their idol] because it's the only thing I have that makes me happy. Sure, it makes me miserable and empty at times, too, but it's all I have."

Read that last sentence again. People will defend the best thing they have in their lives, rather than risk losing it, even if the thing they're defending is hurting more than helping. When we as Christians go out and preach the Gospel, we have to understand that the world has these things that are slowly killing them (and that they probably know are slowly killing them), but that they can't give up because they have nothing better to replace it with. We can't just tell them to give up what they're doing. To be honest, I'm not even sure we're supposed to preach that at least until we've shown them something better and they understand that it's better. How can we expect them to change without motivation? It's hard enough to change even with motivation!

One of my friends has a quote from me on a sticky note that says, "God is like a garbageman: He will only take what you leave out for Him." I was half right. What I didn't say is that He gives you what you need to leave it out for Him, too. By that I mean few people would throw out a computer before they have a new one. You throw out the old once you have something better. If I don't have enough of God in my life, I will fill that void with whatever I can and hold on to that garbage. With God in there, I can let go, put that out by the curb. I can finally let Him take it all away.