Day 265: The Split Personalities of Christianity

Galatians 2:11-13

But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

Have you ever felt like you were living a double life? Meaning have you ever felt that because of your faith you had to act a certain way in front of certain people, and when they were gone you could go back to being yourself? I cannot speak for everyone but I have felt this way far too many times. Being a youth pastor and ordained at a very young age, I felt like I always had to be “on”. This caused me to separate my christian life from my personal life. Many of you can probably see the problem in this sentence before I go into any explanation. As Christians we sometimes fall into a lifestyle that has to be separated, we have these sort of split personalities where we act one way in from of certain people and another way in front of others. We feel like we cannot completely be ourselves as Christians. Why we feel this way may have something to do with the fact that we do not want to give up our old lifestyle completely, but that’s another subject for another day. Take Peter for example, he was a man of God, he shared the gospel and led many to Christ. However, Peter ate with the Gentiles when no one was around to judge him for it. When it was just him and the Gentiles, everything was fine and dandy. But when the people came who knew Him, the friends of James, when his Christians friends came around he acted like he never sat with the Gentiles. He refused to eat with them. He didn’t want to be judged for eating with people who were considered sinners, but he was okay to do it when no one was around. Because of this people started to act the same way. What I’m getting at here is simple, our lives as Christians is not and should not be separated from who we are as people. It’s almost like we go from human to robot mode. We sometimes forget how to be normal and human. We switch on our Christianity at certain times around certain people, but sometimes we can have it off. No that’s not how it works, being a Christian is who we are, we have an identity in Christ that is who we are. It is a lifestyle, the only way to live. There is nobody or nothing separate from that, we don’t get to choose when to switch it on or off. We are Christians followers of Christ at every moment. Everyday of our lives, this is a commitment, it’s a relationship, a lifestyle. It is a choice we made. We should not have two different ways of living.  We often do this because we are afraid to be judged.

Why do we often feel like our humanity is stripped from us when we give our lives to Christ? We turn into these bible robots who no longer know how to be human. We fear letting our humanity show because it will show that we are flawed human beings, sinners saved by grace. So we fall into this routine where we decide when and where to let our faith show and when we can “be ourselves”. When we are Christians, being Christlike is being ourselves. We are nothing outside of christ, so who are we or who are we pretending to be when we set our faith down to “be ourselves”?

We are so concerned with how people will see us and what they will think or say that we allow ourselves to put up a facade. It’s like putting on a mask that we remove from time to time to reveal and cover who we really are. . We allow ourselves to create a separate identity that is only unleashed when “we don’t have to be Christian”. Once again, there is never a moment when we are not Christian.

All this to say, do not have split personalities when it comes to being a Christian. You are not a robot, you do not have to strip yourself of your humanity. Don’t worry about what others will say about you, if you are in the will of God and you know you are living according to His word then you have nothing to worry about. The problem comes when we feel like we have to have a separate life outside of the life we live for Christ.

Reflection

1. Take the time to think about and respond to what we discussed today.
2. Have you ever felt like to had to be “on” in front of certain people?
3. Have you ever felt like you had to separate you life as a christian and you life as a normal person? If yes, why?
4. Have you ever felt the need to prove you Christianity?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer, talk to God and have an honest conversation with Him about what we discussed today.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 266!

Day 215: You're Not A Robot

Matthew 16:24

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

My fear within the Christian community and those of us who have grown up in church is that we have conditioned ourselves to be spiritual robots. Meaning when we read this scripture all we see is, deny. Deny yourself in order to follow Christ. We take this to mean, deny your feelings, deny your impulses, deny who you are as a person because following Christ is now our personality. There’s a few points I want to hit today. First let me start by saying, God changes our ways as a person, He changes who we are by changing how we live. Following Christ does not mean we turn ourselves into robots. In fact it means the exact opposite, we  truly find ourselves when we are found in Christ. When Jesus tells us to deny ourselves here, He is telling us to deny our flesh, turn away from our selfish ways, turn away from the things we want to do that will keep us separated for Him. That’s the part of us we have to deny, the impulse to sin, the fleshly desires. God made us who we are for a reason, the personality we have He gave it to, I do not believe that it is God’s desire to strip us of who we are and force us to be robots. I believe that the idea itself is something man made in order to make us look like better or good Christians. What it does is turn us into spiritual robots. Meaning that being a Christian and following Christ will become nothing more than a routine and obligation. We are made to worship, but many times we confuse worshipping God with living a religious life. Based on rules. When we live by religious rules, we are so focused on the things we cannot do because we serve God. We focus on not doing things in order to stay in “good graces” with God. Which is ridiculous, God’s grace doesn’t run out. Religious rules puts pressure on us to prove our spirituality. When we are in a relationship with God, and when we truly follow Him and love Him this relationship isn’t about what we can’t do. It’s about what we can do, it’s about living with God and enjoying the life He has blessed us with. We are so obsessed with the idea of being a good Christian that we start to lead this robotic lifestyle that God never intended for us to live. If God wanted to be served by robots, He would have made robots. No He gave us a mind, and choices and free will. He gave us the brain to think the capacity to love and the choice choose to serve Him. Don’t deny your humanity. He made us the way we are for a reason. He gave us a personality for a reason. Don’t deny it.

The second point I want to get to is how we have made ourselves emotional robots. When we think about denying ourselves we deny our feelings, we deny how we feel. That is not how we are meant to live, we are human, we have feelings, whether good or bad. It’s what makes us human. God gave us feelings for a reason. Feelings are part of the human anatomy, everything from pain to happiness. We as Christians tend to deny the feelings that in our opinion show we are weak. Even if they do, it shows that we are human and it shows the areas of our life where we need the strength of God. We openly accept the good parts of life sometimes.

Religion has taught us that humility means we don’t get too excited when we succeed, it’s taught us to suppress those excited and proud feelings so we won’t be arrogant or boastful. It’s taught us to deny the feelings that are bad, deny anger and pain. Deny depression, because Christians don’t get depressed or have anxiety deny it because it’s not from God. Denying it does nothing but make it worse. Nowhere in the bible does it say that beings angry, sad, upset, or even depressed is a sin. The sin comes when we act on our anger. When we allow how circumstances to dictate who we are and how we lead our lives, when we allow it to keep us away from God. Being emotional or sensitive is not a sin. We have been taught to be strong and persevere, to pick up our cross and continue walking like Jesus. Jesus persevered yes, but we know that He was in pain, however there was something greater than His pain, and He acknowledged. That doesn’t mean that He acted like the pain didn’t exist, it meant that He was willing to take it in order serve a greater purpose. We see that in the Luke 22 when Jesus prayed at the mount of olives.

Luke 22:42-44

“Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.  

The scripture says that He was in agony. Agony! So much agony that His sweat hit the ground like great drops of blood. Let me give you the definition of agony; extreme and generally prolonged pain; intense physical or mental suffering. Now some say that Jesus was actually sweating blood. That’s how much agony He was in. Now here is a perfect example of denying yourself, taking up your cross and walking. Jesus says, if it be your will God, take this cup from me but not my will, yours be done. Even though He was in pain, He was willing to deal with it if that’s what God wanted. He didn’t pretend like it wasn’t there, in fact He tried to ease it.  But if He had to go through this in order to fulfill His purpose and fulfill God’s plan than He would do it, and He did. And that’s what it means to deny ourselves.

All this to say, when we deny our feelings because of our faith, we are chasing false strength. Meaning we want to look strong because Christians aren’t weak. We put up a facade like everything is okay when we are dying on the inside. Denying our feelings and who we are in order to serve religion only begets more issues and problems within us. Following Christ is not about looking strong or looking like a good Christian. It is about submitting our life to Christ and living a life that follow His plan and purpose.  Embrace your feelings and embrace who you are. Serve God, not religion.

Reflection

1. Are you familiar with the traits of a spiritual or emotional robot?
2. Have you been living your life like a robot?
3. Take the time to search yourself and ask, am I serving God or religion? Am I living to please God or man?

Prayer Time

Allow you answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Talk to God what it truly means to deny yourself and pick up your cross.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 216!