Good Enough Christianity . . .

"Good-Enough Parenting" is a phrase familiar to developmental and child psychologists. The idea is this: No parent can be perfect so we should stop trying.

We should stop reading Parenting Magazine. We should stop making bunny-shaped pancakes. We should stop beating our heads against that Pottery Barn furniture that never did come together correctly after we took it out of the box . . . . and just be real. We'd do a better job of parenting if we'd just leave our terror driven, self-hating perfectionism behind and be happy with being (hold your breath)

. . . average.

But does this apply to being a Christian?

Will the pursuit of "Good-Enough Christianity" get us farther along the path of spiritual maturity than aiming for "Perfect Christianity?"

My husband and I have been reading Devotional Classics together for several weeks now over our morning coffee. We've been immersed in the writings of authors such as C.S. Lewis, Bernard of Clairvaux, George A. Buttrick, Martin Luther, John Bunyan, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John Chrysostom, Jean-Nicholas Garou, Charles Spurgeon . . .

I think you get the point.

Why are we reading these authors? You should not have to ask, but just in case you're wondering . . . it's because these Christian authors actually believed God's Word to be inerrant and sufficient and infallible and inspired and the absolute final authority on all things! And, frankly, there aren't all that many authors today who write from this perspective.

If you hadn't already observed this phenomena, our culture subscribes to an anti-authority mentality which contributes to an anti-Bible mentality. God's Word has been depreciated by rationalism, existentialism, egoism, relationalism, ritualism, liberalism, intellectualism, mysticism, socialism, and probably a few other-isms as well.

These Christian writers of previous centuries would have been appalled by "Christians" today who blindly believe that God's Love will carry them to heaven simply because they've avoided the big, bad sins like embezzlement and murder. They would be sickened by the mass number of "Christians" who attend church for no other reason than to socialize. They would be horrified to see that "worship" was now defined by a certain style of music. They would be dismayed to know that most Christians only view Christianity as another of the world's many Religions.

These great Christian writers and preachers of yesterday would be aghast to realize that an immesurable number of Christians really are living a "good-enough" Christian life if only because they've never actually read their Bibles!

If St. John of the Cross had seen people today living a "good-enough" Christian life, he would have cried out,

"Oh soul created for this greatness and summoned to it -- what are you doing?"

Christianity is not about public or even private devotion. The Christian is the person who has seen his wretched and prideful state before God and chooses instead to acknowledge God's will. Such people consider God in EVERYTHING they do and live out EVERY aspect of their lives in accordance with God's Perfect Will. And -- Yes! They strive for perfection in their lives.

Listen to the words of William Law:

The simple point is this: either Christianity prescribes rules to live by in our daily lives, or it does not. If it does, then we must govern all of actions by those rules if we are to worship God.

. . . Our blessed Savior and his Apostles were very intent on giving us teachings that relate to daily life. They teach us:
to renounce the world and be different in our attitudes
and ways of life;

to renounce all its goods, to fear non of its evils, to reject its joys, and have no value for its happiness;

to be as newborn babes who are born into a new state of things;
to live as pilgrims in spiritual watching, in holy fear, and heavenly aspiring after another life;

to take up our cross daily, to deny ourselves,
to profess the blessedness of mourning, to seek the blessedness of poverty of spirit;

to forsake the pride and vanity of riches, to take no thought for the morrow, to live in the profoundest state of humility, to rejoice in worldly sufferings;

to reject the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life;

to bear injuries, to forgive and bless our enemies,
and to love all people as God loves them;

to give up our whole hearts and affections to God, and to strive to enter through the straight gate into a life of eternal glory.

Isn't it strange that people place so much emphasis upon going to church when there is not one command from Jesus to do so, and yet neglect the basic duties of our ordinary life which are commanded in every page of the Gospels?

~ William Law (1686 - 1761)
From "A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life"

If every Christian were to read the New Testament from its beginning to its end, we would find our course of life condemned in every page of it.

We would then conclude -- with pride -- that the Christian life is impracticable and unattainable in today's world and that the Bible does nothing but condemn and judge. We would also settle once and for all that those Christians who do believe the Bible to be the inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word of God are delusional.

So then . . . we become content to live out "good-enough" Christianity because the Christianity of the New Testament is hopelessly out of reach in today's world and just flat-out absurd.

No Christian can be perfect so we should stop trying. We should just live like the rest of the world. God's Word is desperately behind the times and can't possibly be relevant to our lives today.

Right?

~Esthermay Bentley-Goossen
© 2009 The Heart of a Pastor's Wife