On Happy Clappy-ness

*Slow reflective song plays and no one sings*
"Ugh this song is so boring..."
*song ends*
*Blessed Be The Lord begins...and its deafening*
"Ugh not another Clapping song"
"Shut up I love this song now sing along*

This is a common scene in Chapel. But the thing is, it shouldnt matter what song is sung. The purpose is not the song but the God. Why is it a crime to not sing during the songs that make us feel happy, but its acceptable to not sing in the ones that humble ourselves?

We are so worldly. We want to clap, dance, smile, we want our Jesus to conform to the world, our world that is and our culture. We want Him to be in the things we love, and He is indeed in all things, but He also is above all worldly things. He is in them in ways we do not desire to be part of due to the cost. He goes beyond what we see. Why should we conform Him to a fallen culture?

Smiling, dancing, and happy clappiness are all indeed good for it was He who created them. However, they are NOT good when they are the GOAL of our worship as opposed to being the praise. Why do we praise God to feel better about ourselves? Feeling better about ourselves is not the purpose of Worship! Rather, Humility and humbling is!!!

Why do we get so excited over it for ourselves?

Its the same thing in the Gospel. That is, when someone preaches the Gospel we are stunned and moved. Why? We are numb to the real teachings. Why? Because of the way Christianity is constructed today. We do not live, teach, and share the fullness of the Gospels - instead, we use them to fill our own selfish need. We ignore sections and focus on the parts that fill our longings and desires. We use the Gospel to justify what WE think. We use the Gospel to make Jesus the happy, kind, nice, loving buddy of OURS.

We have watered down Christianity today into little doses of self-importance to be taken at Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner, not to mention Church on Sunday. We take these doses of self-importance with small helpings of self-improvement to fill our deep desire to be loved. We want to be loved so we clap for it. We clap for the fact that OUR needs are filled, when the real point of the Gospel is that everyone else's needs are fulfilled in JESUS working in us. Christianity as it is in America today is doing nothing more than fulfilling our worldly desires.

This desire destroys us because as we form Christianity to fit us, we impose our own meanings on the Bible and quickly forget what its all really about. Christianity is NOT about being happy or being loved. Its about a pain so deep a loss so great that the world sees it as the greatest devastation possible. Christianity is about living for the weak ENTIRELY. Instead of living for the weak, we insist we are the weak and that we need it. We turn blindly to those in true desperation who need our love. Christianity is about dying. It is about dying to oneself, its about taking up your cross and giving yourself entirely.

Its clear no one wants to do this because of worldly influences. We may not want to experience this in its whole due to its cost of everything, but its the way we were meant to experience life in Christ. However, we are afraid to let go, and today, in our desires and blindness, we are further from Christianity than we ever have been.