What set of spectacles are we wearing?

Entering a bookshop, I normally maneuver my body right to the “Spiritual” Section of books. That is just the kind of thing that interests me most. I am often amazed what books end up on such a shelf unit, what a mixed bag of things: Books that deal with Buddha’s philosophy are stacked right next to books that seem to have Christian content. Prayer and Meditation books find themselves in close proximity to spiritually motivated “How to cope” books and other inspirational prayer books. We even find books that tell us interesting, unknown facts and findings about Jesus. Christian Bible and Koran Translations stand close by – often the shopkeeper leaves a little, respectful gap.

The selection of books that I find there give me an idea about what kind of books people buy from such a bookshop section. I don’t know to what bookshop you are trekking to but the ones I visited lately seem to tell me that people buy books that are full of promises. One book promises: “If you read me, you will be empowered to improve your current situation.” another book claims to give you deeper insights into the truth of things, yet another book will make you a better and more successful person. If you allow me to label these kinds of books then I would use the term “Self Help” – do you agree? People are looking for help and have a need to get answers! I am assuming that most of the customers that will buy such books are wearing a specific set of spectacles (figuratively speaking). They possibly perceive the world around them and life itself as a difficult, problematic minefield and they hope that somebody full of wisdom, having had some revelation, will teach them a thing or two about how to cope with it and how to make sense of it all. Worrying for me (at least a bit) is that many Christians have quite a large amount of these kind of books at home (let me rush home and hide them all under the bed before you come for coffee …). Now what is wrong about reading such books Michael? It is not that it is wrong to read such books, but I found a different set of spectacles lately and if I put them on then books like these give me a sour stomach!

You see the old set of spectacles, which I am still wearing more often than I want to, suggests that life happens to me and there is nothing I can do about it. Life throws things at me and I have to deal with it and cope with an as good as possible attitude. Wandering through life like this will make me look for help that either makes me cope better or proposes something that I can use to deal with life better. Many of the so-called Christian books that I have read dish up Jesus as the “coping mechanism”. Jesus helps you to “endure, persevere and stand”. Many books say (or even people speaking one-on-one to you) that if you have a personal relationship with Jesus than he will help you to get through life and at the end, you get a reward because you stumbled through it with a distant smile on your face (excuse my sarcasm).

The new set of spectacles that I have found makes me question this violently! Wearing this new set while reading the New Testament and listening to Followers of Christ that show fruit (Children of God that have something real to show, not just elevated speech)  make suddenly the words “endure, persevere and stand together with Jesus” take on a new reality. It hits me that I have to do this more for OTHERS than using Jesus just for selfish little me! This new set of spectacles shows me that the Keys to the Kingdom are given to the Children of God as FREE MEN (and women) to help OTHERS out of their passive state of being. Followers of Christ have to GO around and break the shackles, take the sleepers by the hand and raise them up into Jesus’ Light. The dear Children of God that Jesus’ Salvation has been given to have to use that gift responsibly with passion and courage. We that claim to be Children of God should use our Freedom and GO out and DO rather than just cope with Jesus’ precious help, complain about how difficult this all is and then wait for better days! Once we realise that Jesus was a DOer, that Paul was a DOer, that Peter as a DOer glorified Jesus and his Father in amazing ways (he was the Super Apostle in the beginning of Acts after all) it will be almost impossible to put on the other set of spectacles that condemn us to stay put, pray and wait. Jesus’ words stand against this attitude: “Go out! Pray to glorify the Father. The harvest is ripe. Follow me!” are words of DOing not words to encourage meditation. They also do not seem to serve well as an encouragement to sit together in a huddle and wait out the storm together.

Dear Child of God, I believe that Christ is in you! Wherever you go, HE goes. Whatever you think and DO having this as your overruling awareness will be different. If you would put on such a new set of spectacles, your life could change: it could be abundant and lived to the fullest. It is our choice!

For myself it feels as if I currently am still inside the Optometrist’s shop trying out new frames … But be aware I intend to buy this new set I spoke about, after all they already took my Medical Aid details!