Several of our 10 grandchildren enjoy playing the game of Monopoly. Once we have completed the game and all participants have sufficiently demonstrated their greed and avarice I insist on being the one to put all of the components of the game back in the box.
Several of our 10 grandchildren enjoy playing the game of Monopoly. Once we have completed the game and all participants have sufficiently demonstrated their greed and avarice I insist on being the one to put all of the components of the game back in the box.
I know precisely where everything goes – each denomination of currency, the houses and hotels, the cards of Chance and the Community Chest, the dice, the deeds to the property, and the tokens. I want each component to go in its specific compartment. I don’t want $10 bills to get mixed in with the $100 bills and I would be horrified to find the Baltic and Mediterranean property mixed in with Park Place and Boardwalk.
That is also the way I like my closet. There is an item of clothing for every place and a place for every item of clothing.
Some may say I am obsessive compulsive, but that is nonsense.
However, in my opinion there is a divinely-ordained place for white shirts, a supernally-ordered location for blue shirts, a providential-designed place for striped shirts, etc.
I wouldn’t be gripped with a panic attack or be hurled into a fit of apoplexy if I found a pair of blue slacks mixed in with a pair of grey slacks, but it would seriously infringe on my normal state of serenity.
While some of us may wisely compartmentalize facets of our lives, it is undeniably true that there are those of us who profess Christ who regrettably either carelessly or unintentionally relegate Christianity to some small corner or segment of our lives.
What happens when we compartmentalize or trivialize Christianity? What happens when we consign our faith to Sundays, but refuse to let it permeate our lives the rest of the week? What happens when we reduce our religion to some antiquated tradition or a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof?
A compartmentalized faith becomes like an addendum to a book, a postscript to a letter, or a codicil to a will. It is like a side street rather than a major highway, a strip mall rather than a downtown shopping district, a minor skirmish rather than the main battle, a pinch hitter rather than the starting line-up, the appetizer rather than the main course, a computer program rather than the operating system.
When professing Christians fail to integrate their faith into the whole of their lives and do not boldly live out their beliefs in the neighborhood, the school campus, the factory, and the marketplace, the church loses its influence and becomes nothing more than an irrelevant sideshow rather than the primary focus of life.
Consequently, the world recognizes Christianity as just one minority among many. We are tolerated and sometimes defended, just like any other minority, but not really taken very seriously. Sadly, Christianity has for the most part accommodated to the culture rather than successfully called the culture to accommodate to Christ.
Jesus gave us two metaphors – salt and light – that teach us that Christianity is designed not to just be a minor part of the society, but the defining part.
Salt permeates! It flavors! It arrests corruption! Similarly, Christianity should influence everything it touches and arrest the decay of a society that is tending toward corruption.
Similarly, light has a permeating influence. It drives out darkness completely. In a very dark room, a small candle will give an individual enough light to see.
The good thing about light is that it affects everything within its domain.
A light does not touch part of the room. It drives out darkness totally from its sphere of influence.
Light and darkness are totally incompatible. Where one exists, the other is driven away. Wherever Christ is, evil must flee away. Wherever truth is, deceit and dishonesty must excuse themselves. Wherever Christians are, society should be better.
Martin Luther, the 16th century Augustinian monk, said that the Christian was worthless until he could vibrantly live a profane life – which in Latin means “outside the temple.”
Luther not only brought clarity to the gospel message, but he also catapulted believers beyond the stained glass walls of the church, exhorting them to be salt and light in places where they might be skewered and lampooned.
George McLeod commented, “I am trying to recover the claim that Jesus Christ was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; and that on the town garbage dump where cynics talk smut, thieves curse, and soldiers gamble. That is where the church must be and that is what churchmanship must be about.”
True spirituality is incredibly practical, robust, and workable no matter where you dwell or what you do.
If your Christianity isn’t viable and stout in the most difficult of cultures, then it isn’t made of the same stuff that characterized the believers of the early church.
To help you take your Christianity out of the Christian ghetto where the secularists would love to have it remain, here is a simple prescription: Stop compartmentalizing Christianity and love God with all of your heart, all of your mind, and all of your soul. All the time and in every place.
No one is allowed to take a break from following Christ. Either we follow His precepts or we do not.
If we refuse to do what He has commanded us to do and fail to live out our faith wherever we are, we are no better off than the most ardent agnostic. We are even worse: lukewarm.
You can put all the pieces back in the Monopoly box in the compartments specifically designed for them, but don’t put your Christianity in a box.
Get the salt out of the shaker! Get the light out from under the bushel! Shine! Permeate! Saturate! Integrate!