Mechanical Christianity

2/12/1993

In a lot of ways we are all in a very dangerous position in the world that we live in. To kind of illustrate that, Joshua and I were watching a little segment of a video yesterday. A point was being illustrated about the difference between life and a mechanical attempt to manufacture or duplicate life. The illustration they gave was this. There’s a guy sitting in a car. There is scenery going by; he’s driving down the road as happy as he can be, and the commentator says, “Well, George is about to make a right hand turn. Notice how George grabs the steering wheel. Notice he has the famous four-fingered grip. His thumb is located directly underneath the steering wheel parallel to the steering wheel. His right hand is in the two o’clock position just as it ought to be. George is starting to get a little nervous now. He is driving down the road, tensing up a little. Now he is approaching the intersection. Notice how George now moves the wheel with his left hand. It is now on the twelve o’clock, now the two o’clock position—at that point his right hand will now cross over and grab the steering wheel at the ten o’clock position…”

George is trying to remember which fingers go where and the thumbs underneath and he is losing his mind with the whole thing. It fades out and he is hand over hand over hand, and crashes into a fire hydrant in the intersection. That is kind of where we are spiritually in a lot of ways.

There was a day and a time when all of us were either unbelievers in the purest, most absolute sense—we knew nothing about God- or we were involved in a way of life that was called “Christianity”, but didn’t really reflect the life and intensity and truths of the scriptures. It didn’t reflect the teachings of Jesus, the way of life of Jesus, the example of Jesus, the example of the twelve, the example of the 3,120—it didn’t really reflect the teachings of the scriptures. It believed the teachings of the scriptures, supposedly, but it didn’t practice the teachings of Jesus and the examples of the only church you can read about in the Bible. So in that sense, either we didn’t believe there was a car (just to draw back to that analogy for a minute), or we were sitting in the parking lot in the car having a good time smelling the upholstery and playing make-believe, but there was nothing really at stake. We were just sitting there. A lot of people don’t believe there is any car. There is no interest in it—there is no car. It’s just me and the rest of the world, and I do the best I can and take my own belief system and wear it as I please, and, “Mine is as good as yours, so get off my back. There is no car.” Others, again, are very content just to sit in the parking lot.

We are now in this dangerous position of driving down the road and needing to negotiate the intersections. There is a destination out there someplace and it’s not a straight line downhill. It’s not like that. Jesus is teaching us and drawing us towards the destination—His Father, and the mind of the Father, and there are certainly some obstacles in the way, some things that we have to learn. The dangerous position that we find ourselves in is that now we are on the road; it is very easy to approach this whole thing called “Christianity” like George in the automobile. “Okay, I’m supposed to do this. I’m supposed to admonish one another daily. I’m supposed to confess. I’m supposed to share Christ with the waitress at the restaurant. I’m supposed to do this…I’m supposed to do that…” We have no real idea of what is going on, and because it is not out of Life, it’s not the very natural thing of the hand-over-hand, without even so much of a thought on negotiating the intersection.

But it can be a very natural thing to negotiate the intersection when the destination is what we are after. We are not thinking at all about where the fingers go and where the thumb goes, and at what point to put hand-over-hand, and all those things. We are not thinking of the mechanics when we are walking in life, when we are walking in the Spirit. The dangerous situation is to be driving in a car, but to be consumed with the externals, by the mechanics, by the “how-tos” and the “what-ifs” and the “why-nots.” Those sorts of things put us in an intersection and make us pretty likely to hit a couple of fire hydrants or pedestrians as we go through all these things.

I think that our heart cry, that discussion with and beseeching of the Father, needs to be, “Make me real. Help me. I desperately want to be on this journey. I don’t want to sit in the parking lot. I don’t want to pretend there is no car. I really want the whole thing. But I also know this is way over my head. It’s not natural to me. It’s not who I am. It’s not part of my life. I’m not lost in the destination with the turning and the driving, the mechanics of that being really immaterial to me. I’m not in that place and I need You to help me to be there.”