Never Boring

As a member of my Sunday school class remarked this past week, if you condensed church history into just the highlights, no one would believe any of it was true. Cardinals thrown out windows. Debates over sausage. One man turning back an entire Hun army. Corpses exhumed, dressed, and put on trial. Santa Claus (well, the real Saint Nicholas) punching an opponent. The list goes on. If there's one thing we can say for the 2,000-year history of Christ's Church, it's that it was never boring.

Somehow, though, we often reduce our faith to a monotonous series of boring things. Do this, not that. Go here, don't go there. Worship often fares no better; I guarantee each and every one of you can tell me exactly how your church service goes on any given Sunday, and that's because there's rarely any variation. Even the music gets boring. If something does manage to pique our interest, we research it to death. We no longer have room for mystery and mysticism, only logical answers, routines, and lists of rules.

I don't think Jesus ever meant for it to be like that. He offers us something which totally changes every facet of our lives. Nothing can be the same once we belong to Jesus, whether it's our attitude about life or what we do when no one's watching. Yes, there are rules and routines, but these are designed to give us life, to bring us closer to God, to help us have the most joy possible, to keep things from getting stale -- not to become cosmic checkboxes or unwanted obligations.

Put some excitement back in your Christian walk. Get on fire for God again. Commit yourself to holy mystery and not having it all together. Look to God for joy. Because remember: the life of the Church, the life of a Christian, is never boring.