Beware: Spiritual QWERTY Is Killing Multitudes

3/4/2000

The Agony of the Hands

Searing pain.

It starts innocently enough. First you notice a slight tingling sensation in one of your fingers. It doesn’t show up until the middle of the evening, so you never suspect the true culprit-all those keystrokes you made on your computer at work. So the next day you’re back to the grindstone, meeting that deadline. Then there’s the next deadline. And then the one after… Weeks pass, and that tingling turns into numbness. Then pain. First the finger, then the hand, finally excruciating, fiery jolts all the way to the shoulder.

You have carpal tunnel syndrome-you and millions of other Americans. Most of them are in certain high-risk jobs: musicians, meat packers, dental hygienists, and especially people who do a lot of typing. Nearly 250,000 this year alone will miss at least some work because of the pain.

Why does it happen? Carpal tunnel syndrome is a repetitive strain injury. Your wrist bones form a tunnel. Through it pass the hand’s major nerve and tendon. As your fingers move, the tendon rubs against the tunnel. If you make that motion over and over, the tendon swells. Swelling presses the nerve, causing the tingling, numbness, and pain.

Repetitive strain-those words certainly describe typing. The fingers of a professional typist or data entry worker move as much as twenty miles a day. And “high mileage” is just as hard on hands as it is on car engines! It’s also hard on our economy. One expert says that each new case of carpal tunnel syndrome costs an average of $6500 in direct benefits to the worker and nearly $25,000 if you add in the costs of lost production and worker re-training.

The price is staggering. And who can put a dollar figure on suffering?

What if someone came up with simple invention that could prevent almost all typing-related repetitive stress injuries? American businesses would jump at the chance to do something to reduce costs and promote efficiency, right? Labor unions would insist on anything that would prevent suffering and injury, wouldn’t they? Why, Congress would probably enact a law requiring that all businesses use the invention!

No, they wouldn’t. Because they haven’t.

The invention exists, and has existed for decades. It’s never found wide use, though, and probably never will. Why? Ah, there’s an interesting story-and with it, a sobering lesson about the prisons we humans can create for ourselves.

A LONG TRADITION-OF PAIN

His name was Christopher Sholes. The year was 1867. The Civil War had just ended. America was in a state of rapid change-politically, socially, and technologically. Sholes, an inventor, was trying to construct a commercially practical typewriter. His creation had piano-like keys in alphabetic order. Press a key, and type bars would strike the back of a piece of paper to print a letter.

Sholes had a problem. His typewriter was too easy to use! After a little practice, a user could reach a rate of, say, 20 words a minute. At that point, the primitive key system would jam. Since the bars struck behind the paper, the user wouldn’t notice the jam until the page was ruined.

Time for a little Yankee ingenuity, right? Improve the type bars to move faster; switch their position to the front of the page so the user would notice any jam right away. Sound OK?

Unfortunately, Sholes had a different idea. He embarked on a study of the English language, noting the most commonly used letter combinations. Then he returned to his invention and re-arranged the keyboard so that the most useful letter combinations would be the hardest to strike. His logic? Prevent a typist from doing 20 words a minute, and jams would never happen! Sholes apparently didn’t have the vision that users would want to type faster and would push themselves to do so. He had no way of knowing the strain the combination of speed and difficulty would put on typist’s hands.

The Remington & Sons Company, famous for guns and sewing machines, decided to market typewriters, too. In 1874, it began selling machines based on Sholes’ keyboard arrangement, with Q-W-E-R-T-Y on the top row. The typewriters were enormously successful, and soon even Remington’s competitors were selling their own “Qwerty” machines.

As time passed, typewriter design improved, virtually eliminating the problem of jamming type bars at low speeds. But the illogical Qwerty keyboard was now a tradition.

REFORM ATTACKS TRADITION (GUESS WHO WINS?)

Forty years passed. A University of Washington professor, August Dvorak, after watching slow motion films of typists at work, realized how terribly inefficient the whole process was. He, like Sholes, embarked on a study of the English language. His objective was totally different, though. Dvorak wanted to design the most efficient and easiest to use keyboard possible. After twenty years of painstaking research, he and his colleagues unveiled their creation: the Dvorak keyboard.

It was a model of efficiency. With the Dvorak keyboard, nine of the twelve most common letters are right under the fingers in the “home” row of the keyboard. As a result, the fingers rarely have to hurdle from one row to another in the middle of a word. In the new keyboard, the vowels are under the left land and the most common consonants are under the right. With that arrangement, the hands often take turns typing letters within a word, giving each hand a split second to rest while the other is working. It improves efficiency and reduces strain.

The results are stunning. With a Dvorak keyboard, as compared to a traditional one:

¨ Children learn to type in one-third the time.

¨ Typists’ fingers move 5% as much-one mile per day instead of 20.

¨ Trained typists type twice as fast with half the errors.

With the Dvorak keyboard, carpal tunnel syndrome simply wouldn’t happen to professional typists. More work in less time with fewer injuries. It seems like an idea whose time has come!

So-how come the keyboard I’m using right now is the traditional Qwerty rather than the Dvorak? The answer lies in that powerful little word: tradition.

Because of tradition, typists and the institutions that employ them have a commitment to Qwerty. Each has something to lose. Keyboard operators have invested hours of training and years of experience with the traditional arrangement of letters. It is familiar. Who wants to go back and “unlearn” Qwerty? Employers have an investment, too. All their machines have the traditional keyboard. Who’s going to pay for new equipment? Who’s going to re-train the workers? Everyone involved would have to risk short-term loss for long-term gain. And someone has to go first, taking the chance that no one will follow. So the industrialized world keeps right on typing Qwerty-and paying dearly.

Instead of solving the problem, our society has chosen to try to compensate for it. Is Qwerty hard to learn and awkward to use? Come up with training courses, textbooks, and scores of cute game-like software packages to make up for it. Does Qwerty cause injuries? Invent high-tech paraphernalia, from wrist supports and “ergonomically correct” computer tables to typing gloves that look like hand-me-downs from medieval knights. Are some workers still incapacitated? Perform painful, difficult surgery. Nearly 500,000 Americans this year-many of them office workers-will have carpal surgery, at a combined cost of two billion dollars.

Just how difficult would it be to switch to a better keyboard? The U.S. Navy during World War II had to jettison tradition in favor of efficiency. There just weren’t enough typists. Within weeks, they had retrained personnel on the Dvorak keyboard and achieved 74% faster typing with 68% greater accuracy.

A 1978 study at Oregon State University focused on retraining office workers. During the introductory phase, each worker received ten hours of self-taught Dvorak training in 15-minute chunks, while continuing to use the traditional keyboard for their office duties. During the second phase, workers began each day with a twenty-minute practice session, then used the new keyboard on the job. The study ended after the trainees had finished two and a half workweeks of the second phase. The results: with even that minimal training, the office workers were typing 12-17% faster on the Dvorak keyboard than they had been typing on Qwerty. And their rates were still improving when the study ended.

The actual mechanical switchover is easy, too. Pop in a diskette, push a couple of buttons, and your computer keyboard is now Dvorak. Stick on a set of decals, and it looks Dvorak, too.

My point to this story?

Simple. The Qwerty keyboard is a pain. It causes health problems and slows down productivity. But it is an entrenched tradition. Even though the actual cost and hassle of changing to a better keyboard would be minimal, it probably will never happen. Tradition-empowered by our love of the familiar and our fear of being “different”-has imprisoned us in our comfort zone. And tradition always will.

THE HIGH PRICE OF TRADITION

When tradition is at work, we routinely and habitually think, say, or do certain things, simply because they are our routine and habit. Certain activities stop being choices and become “no-brainers.” It doesn’t matter whether that habit still makes sense, or whether it ever did. It doesn’t even matter if the tradition, like the Qwerty keyboard, is miring us in an inefficient or painful way of doing something. Mindless repetition has numbed us to the costs involved. Painful “blisters” turn into hardened “calluses,” and we stop caring. The comfort of familiarity and conformity lulls us to sleep, and we forget the costs.

There is a distinction between tradition-bound living on the one hand and obedience to the law and consideration of other people on the other. Obedience and consideration may cause us to show up at work at a regular hour and to drive on the right side of the road when we go. But tradition would cause us always to choose the same route, or drive through the same McDonald’s for coffee on the way. A certain route or fast-food restaurant may seem innocent enough. But a mindless habit of doing the same thing over and over can have devastating effects, as we will see.

Obedience and consideration will earn praise from both man and God. But living by human tradition will never receive His smile. We may ignore or forget the high price of tradition, but the eyes of God see the end as well as the beginning. He knows how dangerous human tradition can be. Even if it were possible for Him to forget, the wounds on Jesus’ hands and feet would remind Him.

In the pages of the New Testament, the Pharisees are the obvious examples of the high price of tradition. No doubt you are very familiar with the gospel accounts of their opposition to Jesus. Where did they begin, and when? In Israel, sometime around 160 BC, when the Greeks ruled Palestine. Many Jews were embracing Greek culture. The Pharisees wanted to be “Separate”-the literal meaning of their name. They were radically devoted to God. They emphasized a wholesome, righteous lifestyle, with a rigorous observance of all the dietary, cleanliness, and calendar regulations of the Jewish Law. The Pharisees taught, however, that there were two Laws-written and oral. The written Law was found in the books of Moses-the Old Testament. The oral Law was found in all the unwritten traditions of the Jewish people. The truly holy Jew, they believed, needed to observe both.

Evidently tradition had a deadly effect on the Pharisees. Outwardly, the leaders of Jesus’ day resembled the radicals who had opposed worldliness 200 years earlier. But inwardly, spiritually, the Pharisees had become hollow. The passion for God had leaked out. All that was left was the hard outer crust of devotion to “the way we’ve always done it.”

What was the fruit of tradition in the Pharisee’s lives? What can tradition do to us?

¨ We can trust in our spiritual heritage rather than keeping an up-to-date relationship with God and so grow hardened to His calls to repentance (Matthew 3:7-10).

¨ We can grow blind to our true spiritual need, while others less “spiritual” than ourselves seek Jesus desperately (Matthew 9:11-13).

¨ We can condemn the innocent who may be living more closely to Jesus than we are, but who don’t happen to conform to our pet traditions (Matthew 12:1-8.)

¨ We can violently oppose God’s work when He doesn’t meet our standards, either (Matthew 12:11-14).

¨ We can become spiritually insensitive, unable to see God’s current thought and intent (Matthew 16:1-4).

¨ We can grow prideful and defensive, seeing truth as a threat to our position (Matthew 21:45-46).

How can this be? How can seemingly innocent habits, intended to foster holiness, lead to such corruption? What could be so bad about taking a few extra precautions on the Sabbath? How could just washing your hands before eating be so wrong? Isn’t this whole discussion just a bit far-fetched?

No. Here is the truth: A reliance on tradition robs us of something vitally important and opens the door for the flesh to take charge of our lives.

What is that something? What does human tradition take away?

The Word of Jesus tells us plainly: “Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, ‘Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!’ Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ he is not to ‘honor his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’” (Matthew 15:1-10)

Human traditions nullify the Word of God. When we introduce a tradition, what controls our thoughts and actions is no longer God’s voice, but our own ideas. God doesn’t have a say in the matter any more. Instead, we will keep on doing the thing we’ve decided He would like. Sovereignty has passed from the King of Kings to a creature’s feeble thoughts. Eventually, the passage of time will erode God’s authority to the point where we will actually break His law for the sake of our traditions!

We become independent and self-sufficient. We feel righteous about obeying the tradition-not stopping to think that we are only following a policy we invented-and so religious pride sets in. It becomes so much easier for us to judge others, and so much harder for us to receive correction from them. The movement of God moves right past us, but we don’t realize it-so we start opposing His work.

This whole process can be quite subtle, but it is inevitable that to the extent tradition rules our lives, God cannot.

The highest cost of tradition? We pay it when our hearts stray from God and our worship loses all meaning.

God, through Jesus, has promised us and called us to a far better way.

THE NEW AGREEMENT

Listen to the terms of God’s New Covenant with us: “I will put My laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (Hebrews 8:10-12).

The last term of God’s contract-although perhaps more widely taught than believed-is still blessedly familiar to us. “As far as the east is from the west,” He has removed our sins by crucifying them with His Son. The whole agreement hinges on this promise. But there is more to the Covenant than forgiveness, wonderful though that may be. God also has sworn to give us an inner knowledge of His laws, His ways, and His very self! It is a Christian’s birthright. Instead of receiving an external law that we must strive to apply, we have in our spirits the ability to sense God’s will and a desire to obey it-unless we quench that inner Life.

God wants our hearts free and clear so that we may receive a knowledge of His desire and put it into practice. With an open heart, we can respond to the complexities and subtleties of each new situation with a childlike trust and a simple response to His current thought. Human tradition hinders that relationship. It preprograms us to respond to situations by our assumptions and habits, not by open and free obedience.

In His New Agreement, God has promised to be very near to us—never any farther away than our hearts. Jesus could have left us with written orders and then evaluated our performance from a safe distance. He did not choose to do so. Instead, He decided to make our lives His home and hang his self-portrait on our hearts. That’s why it’s so important to keep our hearts and lives free from the clutter of tradition!

Jesus put it this way: “Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God… The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” In a kingdom, there is a relationship where a ruler exercises absolute authority over his subjects. So in the Kingdom of God, the Wind of the Holy Spirit blows wherever He pleases. Like the wind, we can detect His presence by His effects, but we can no more control or predict His behavior than we can tame the wind. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. Anyone who has received the indwelling Lordship of the Spirit will respond to His direction. The actions of a believer will be purposeful and will follow a divine logic, but they will not be mechanical, predictable, or tradition-bound. God’s current desire, not our own habits and thoughts and tendencies, will choose our daily direction. As He blows through our lives, we will respond instantly, like leaves driven by a swirling wind.

It’s all in God’s exciting New Agreement with us. Forgiveness puts us in a relationship with Him where we can know Him, receive His will, and obey Him from the heart. Our lives can become extensions of His heart!

The whole New Testament “testifies” to the same truth.

John calls that indwelling Lordship an anointing. “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. As for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you…But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit-just as it has taught you, remain in Him” (1 John 2:20,27).

Paul refers to a mind. “The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us…We have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:10-12,16)

James speaks of wisdom from God filling our lack (James 1:5-8) and of God’s word actually being planted inside us (1:21).

These writers are only choosing different God-breathed words to describe the same truth. God’s grace does more than forgive us. It softens our hearts and instructs them so that we may respond quickly to His thoughts, which are so much higher and better than our own.

Please don’t think that we are advocating a “New Age” Christianity, where the Christian life is all about some séance-like communion with God! Instead, we are taking God up on His promise that He will put His anointing, His mind, His wisdom inside us so that the Lordship of Christ will have a reality in our practical daily lives! That’s “New Testament” (New Covenant) Christianity.

Human tradition violates that New Covenant. It removes whole topics and behaviors from a sphere where Jesus can control them by His Thought and places them in a realm where we always do certain things at certain times in certain ways. That wasn’t how Jesus lived! The only “always” for Jesus was that He always did what pleased the Father (John 8:29). His disciples will follow His example.

The conflict, then, is not between tradition and “spontaneity.” At issue is the decision of who will call the shots in daily life. Will man be Lord, or will Jesus?

DON’T BE TAKEN CAPTIVE!

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught” (Col. 2:6-7). Paul’s concern for the Colossians had to do with Jesus’ Lordship. They had received Jesus as Lord, but something was trying to interfere with that relationship in the affairs of daily life. “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world, rather than on Christ” (Col. 2:8).

Everybody has a philosophy of life, a set of convictions that determines how he or she tries to live. There are really only two alternatives. One is to live a life of simple dependence on Christ. He is Lord; we live with Him as Lord of our daily lives, sinking our roots deep into Him, trusting Him moment by moment. The other alternative, as Paul points out, is to depend on human tradition and worldly principles. He calls such philosophy “deceptive,” because it sounds so reasonable and good, and “hollow,” because it leaves a person empty. It will take even believers “captive” if they allow it.

These two foundations for living-dead traditions and a Living Lord-are incompatible. To the extent one lives in a person’s heart, it drives out the other. Live in reliance on Christ, and you won’t have room for tradition and worldly principles. Live in reliance on tradition, and you won’t have room for Christ. Which would you choose?

Paul reminds us what’s at stake: “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority” (Col. 2:9). Have you seen Him with the eyes of your heart “high and lifted up”? When you gaze on Him do you see God? Does your inner being thrill at His headship over everything in creation? If the answer is “Yes!” then would you want for a moment to dethrone Him in your life by depending on the pre-determined requirements of tradition, rather than on His current direction for your life?

“Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ” (Col. 2:16). Even the “best” traditions are only shadows. Why settle for a two-dimensional, gray outline of reality when you can have Reality Himself?

“Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules…These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom…but they lack any value” (Col. 2:20,22-23). It doesn’t matter how wise tradition appears: worldly wisdom can never rise above its origin. A life based on human principles will eventually fall apart, for the only lasting value is in Christ. And since we died with Him, we have no right to base our lives on anything or anyone else.

THE STARTING POINT

All of these considerations about the high price of tradition will have zero value unless we get intensely practical with them. The story about “Qwerty” hopefully made some good points to think about, but neither you nor I are likely to mount the energy to do anything about America’s keyboards. The consequences for our neglect won’t be too serious-maybe a case of sore hands. But if all we get from the New Testament’s teachings about human tradition are some “good points to think about,” my writing and your reading of these words are a waste of time. It will take some energy to deal practically with human tradition in and around us. But if we believe Jesus’ Word-and surely we must-the consequences of ignoring His warnings about tradition will be disastrous.

So let’s ask ourselves, you and I, whether we understand everything perfectly or see the way before us clearly, are we willing to work this issue through with Jesus in integrity and sincerity of heart to its conclusion, regardless of the cost?

If the answer is yes…

Let’s begin not with externals, but with a heart check. If our hearts are right, the rest will follow. “Make the tree good, and the fruit will also be good.” In our hearts, do we genuinely want an indwelling Lord directing our steps and taking authority over our daily lives? Can we break into a grin at the thought of surrendering our autonomy to Him, or does the whole idea seem burdensome? Does obedience sound like a high privilege, or like a drag?

The place to start is loving Jesus. He Himself said: “If you love me, you will obey what I command… Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him…If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.” (John 14:15,21,23-24)

If we love Jesus, the desire to know His current heart and join ours to it will be natural and intense. We may not be aware of all the hindrances to obedience in our lives, but when we spot one, we will attack it with a passion. Our greatest joy will be to experience that New Covenant fellowship day to day.

And if we don’t love Him? The comfort zone of tradition will seem quite attractive, because running our lives on auto-pilot will feel like a lot less hassle than moment-by-moment obedience.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart.” Every other requirement will fall into place. This agape love for God is not a flight of emotion; it is not an appreciation of all the neat stuff He does for us. It is a settled determination that, because He is worthy, because He first loved us, we will seek His interests and purposes regardless of the cost and regardless of the benefits. That view of Him will produce a desire to obey. The desire to obey will produce a hatred of all obstacles to obedience. With that heart, we will recognize human tradition for what it is. With that heart, we find inside the energy to do something about it.

If that love does not exist, the place to start in the words of a nineteenth century brother, “plow the fallow ground of our hearts until we strike fire.” If that love does exist, let us fan it into flame and go on.

PRACTICAL STEPS

Suppose we realize that God’s New Agreement with us means that we’ll have an indwelling Lord to obey. Suppose also that we want Jesus to call the shots in our daily lives, because we love Him. And finally suppose that we are convinced that human tradition can and does muddy up our perception of God’s desire and blunt our ability to fulfill it. What then?

Let’s start by being very clear about what human tradition is: any area of life that is no longer under Jesus’ authority because it is controlled instead by habit, convention, or ritual that we’ve either created or adopted.

Some traditions are quite personal. The example of driving to work is actually not so far-fetched. What if we always take a certain route, simply because we’ve decided it’s the fastest, or has the least traffic, or takes us right by that McDonald’s for that cup of coffee? It may well be that God doesn’t mind today, and that He feels just fine about it tomorrow, too. But what if one morning God wants to take us another route for some reason we don’t understand? What if He has a lesson for us to learn, or a person on the way He wants us to speak to or serve, or an accident He wants us to avoid, or a traffic light He wants us to stop at so we’ll have a moment to pause and pray? If our route is pre-programmed, habitual, and no longer open for discussion, we’ll probably miss the mark. After all, most of us don’t get angelic visitations every time we receive direction! Usually it’s a nudge, a hunch, a persistent little certainty that pops into our minds. It can be so easy to quench the Spirit.

Let’s cultivate the heart of giving God permission to change anything without notice. Let’s expect His direction and start sensing the Wind of Heaven. Let’s clear the junk out of our minds and off our car stereos so that we can receive His Word. Let’s jettison our habits, except for the habit of staying close to Jesus!

Then there are the religious traditions that we didn’t necessarily create, but we’ve inherited-sometimes without a second thought-from people who made some decision long ago and far away. What can we do about those?

When we get used to taking nothing for granted, and when we surrender control over everything to Jesus, it’s amazing how many “innocent” little habits will suddenly stop looking so harmless. Still, all of us will need help sensitizing seared spots on our consciences. We’ll need each other, for that and many other reasons. So draw near to others who you’re sure have made that basic decision that Jesus will be Lord in practice, not just in name. Practice lifting Him up to each other and speaking honestly and lovingly to each other about inconsistencies you see in the other’s life, while avoiding gossip or gripe-sessions or rebellion. Keep the focus on Jesus!

Take note and take action on any direct commands you realize you’re flat out disobeying. For example: While reading the gospels one morning, you notice something you’ve always passed over. Jesus said, according to Matthew: “The teachers of the law and Pharisees…love to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’ But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and He is in heaven. Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” You realize for the first time that Jesus is not giving a list of “bad words” (Rabbi, father, teacher), but rather forbidding any kind of religious titles that set aside a special class of people as something other than a brother or sister. You see that such titles tempt people unnecessarily, that they detract from the special place Jesus should hold, and that-and this is reason enough-He simply says to avoid the practice. So…you pray, repent, and change. Next time you speak with “Rev. Doe,” you very respectfully call him “Mr. Doe.” Or if you yourself are in some leadership position, the next time someone greets you as “Pastor John,” you reply kindly, “Just call me John. Brothers don’t need titles!” Seems like a little change, but every new adventure begins with a small step!

Even without making “reform” our focus, we will begin to notice many such traditions as we are trying to love Jesus and clear out of the way any impediment to loving Him more. Many of the traditions won’t be quite so easy to see or address as the example above. But as we ask Him to “see if we cling to any offensive way and lead us in the everlasting way,” He will continue to open our eyes.

Again, avoid the temptation to become issue-oriented or political. Keep it simple. Your “strategy” is nothing more than knowing, hearing, and obeying the Lord Jesus and jettisoning everything that has assumed a life of its own-anything that puts your heart on auto-pilot-and encouraging others to do the same.

NOT A PROGRAM!

One lesson was apparent from the example of the Qwerty keyboard. Most people are simply unaware of the problems associated with it. Those who are aware usually respond by treating the symptoms rather than attacking the problem. Remember? There are training programs to overcome the problem by learning to work harder and faster. There are gizmos and gadgets that try to reduce the strain. There are medical procedures to heal some of the damage done. But virtually no one has stopped using Qwerty.

The same tendency applies to “religious” traditions. It’s easy, if you care at all, to sense that something’s missing. Like the pain of overworked hands, the pain of spiritually starved lives is hard to ignore. But the typical response is again to treat the symptom. That is the origin of most church programs! Is Jesus not really being honored and adored? Try revamping the worship service. Are people drifting into spiritual oblivion? Come up with a new Bible study curriculum. Do the believers have no concept of what “church” means to the heart of God? Rearrange the meeting times and places to shuffle them off into small groups. But it’s just like the Qwerty example: These “solutions” try to cover up the problem by training people to work harder, by trusting in some new technology, or by employing some procedure to relieve the pain. The foundational issues are untouched, and human hearts are unchanged.

The reason we’re so reluctant to deal with foundations? Again, it has to do with investment. We have something to gain or lose in the success or failure of the enterprise. The familiar seems so safe. Being different-and labeled as such-is frightening. Some energy is required and a risk is involved. But for the love of Jesus-would you want it any other way?

So please: if you are convinced that something is a human tradition and begin to see how it is hurting God’s purposes and His people, do not respond by inventing some new tradition or remodeling the old one. Likely others will suggest that course of action even if you don’t. They may even offer you a position (with a title, no less) in charge of the new program. What will you do then? It is better to admit the truth: that you don’t have all the practical answers, but that you’re willing to uphold God’s covenant and work hard alongside those who will adopt it, too. But as you are seeking Him and exploring His ways, you cannot afford to take any detours with tradition.

Such a stance could be costly. Popping a few bubbles got Jesus-the nicest man who ever lived-in deep, deep trouble. Let Peter’s exhortation apply: “If you suffer, it should not be…as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian”-a little anointed one-”do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name” (1 Peter 4:15-16).

‘BYE, FOR NOW

I pray that God will give us both the wisdom to carry out the exhortations of this little writing, and to carry them to a far higher level than I can envision as I write the words down. In fact, if you don’t mind, let’s pray together.

God, there aren’t a whole lot of things we see with crystal clarity. But we do see Jesus, high and lifted up, bearing a name above any in this world or the next. If anyone holding this booklet in his or her hands doesn’t see Jesus that way, please show us the grace to open our eyes to know Him. We give you permission to do whatever it takes in our lives to make His glory shine throughout the earth. In particular, we’ve been thinking together about the role of human tradition in dimming that glory. We’re sorry-we truly, truly repent-of the “no-brainers” that have deprived Jesus of His Lordship in our lives. To quote a man after your own heart, please do search us and test us, try us and know our hearts. Reveal and expose those ways that offend you, and show us your true path, the way that will glorify your Son. Help us be practical without being shallow. Help us see the deeper issues without being shallow, either. Teach us to love Jesus, for that will build up His Kingdom rather than puff us up. Don’t let us stumble blindly into temptation, but lead us so that we can embarrass the tempter. Thanks for giving us your Son as King!

If it’s the Real thing: There is no movement for you to join, no organization to support, no salesman to knock on your door, and no recruiting. But if you need help, and are willing to pay any price for Jesus, He’ll show you where to turn.

For His Name’s Sake!

—Dan