Stasis

Axiom: Apart from me you can do nothing – Jesus Christ
Reverse Axiom: If you do nothing it will certainly be without Him – Justin Gentry

We tend to like things as they were. Old timers are notorious for this, “In my day we (insert nostalgic nonsense about walking up hill both ways which I know is impossible).” Anyone who has graduated college is almost as bad, “I remember in school we…” Even kids fall victim to it, “Last year we…” Face it folks, we all compare today with the past.

The past is the only context we have to interpret our present. We are the sum of our experiences and our reactions to them so it makes sense to be a student of history (there are a few politicians I know who could use a good personal history lesson, but that is the subject of another blog entirely). Anyone who knows me knows that I am a bit nostalgic myself. I enjoy mythology, I memorized a few creeds and I know how to use a sword without cutting my toes off. A bit of wistfulness is not a bad thing.

Nostalgia has a dirty side too. There comes a time when we look to the past at the expense of the future. I am going to call this condition “stasis” and I fear it is all over the Body of Christ. “If we could get back to the early church, If we could be more like John Wesley, If we could party like its 1611, If…If…If…” I am saddened to hear these kinds of phrases come out of Christian mouths because it is often in resignation. Things are not like they were. Nothing good can happen and so we do nothing. We begin preaching the past and not the gospel by making people convert to a previous era of thinking and talking (KJV anyone?) and not to a present and living Christ.

Apart from Christ we can do nothing. Without Him the Church will wither up and die. Be as culturally relevant as you want and without him you might as well preach the sky is falling. Conversely if we do nothing to bring Christ into the 21st century I am not so sure he is going to be in that either. If Christ is relevant today why do we keep him rooted in the past? Sometimes we act like he is dead and waiting for us to resurrect him through ancestor worship or something. He is alive at present and calling for us to meet Him. He is in the people who are currently poor, naked, and hungry. I think He is waiting for us to reach them in their language. He reached us in ours. He left his heavenly home are we going to leave the ivory pulpit?

The only constant is change. We can never go back to the good old days. We can’t count on the righteous past to give us a righteous future. We have no future without a Christ-centered and forward-thinking present. I love the past and in my life I desire some of the traits of my forebears. I admire their courage and love but if I am not fleshing out those traits today then their legacy is lost. Let’s not get stuck in stasis and get left behind. Let’s go to the frontlines and give the future something to remember

Are you in stasis? What are you doing to connect to Christ today? Do you find yourself constantly afraid of anything new or innovative? Why is that?

Talk amongst yourselves

-J