I was reading somewhere online about why Christians are shallow. I read the usual “not enough quiet time” “we need to spend more time in the Word” “we are too distracted by ’stuff’”. I don’t think those responses were necessarily bad or wrong, they just don’t go deep enough.
Do we need to overcome our inadequacies, our failures, our lack of will-power? Or is it something else? I think it’s something else. Why would we think that we could develop a deep relationship with Christ when we find precious little in our culture that teaches how to take time to pursue a relationship for more than personal gain. Think about our culture today. Everything is super-quick: McDonald’s, e-mail, IM, texting. What in our culture teaches us how to have an actual relationship? What have we seen that inspires us to pursue the difficult?
Relationships are hard. They take work. They take sacrifice. They take longer than 27 seconds to mature. I am not bashing our culture. Nor am I advocating that followers of Christ wage a war on American culture. I am merely pointing out the obvious. I don’t think people are shallow Christians because of what they do or don’t do. I think people are shallow Christians because throughout their lives they haven’t been exposed to the rewards of long-term relationship. Not just a spiritual relationship, but relationships with people.
Before we look to blame, we should look to teach. Before we cast off the bad, we should inspire them to greatness.
