experience

A number of years ago I remember a comment made on the RE-YourLife discussion board by Bobby C in response to the movie, The Passion of the Christ. He made the observation that the deep emotional response that the came with watching the movie was as much a result of the extreme violence as it was the power of the story itself. To defend his point, he referenced the effect that watching a horror can have on the body.

So, why do I bring this up? I had a similar experience last night.

Anita was given tickets to the Rockies and Yankees game for Christmas. So last night Anita and I sat out in left field of Coors Field looking at the backs of Derek Jeter and A-Rod. Even as a non-baseball guy I can say that it was a great game and it was exciting to see the perpetually disappointing and rebuilding Rockies knock off the historic Yankees 3-1.

After the victory, the home crowd was ecstatic and the crowd around us chanted, "Let's go Rockies!" as we made our way out of the park. The joy of being on the side of the winning team even had me excited about the now two games over 500 Rockies and, had I not gone to the game with a Yankees fan, I very well could have joined in the taunting or just stepped to the side and basked in the glow of victory. It was a truly inspirational moment.

Then I thought, "That's interesting, the adrenaline rush and the general joy of this frenzy feels exactly the same as a powerful 'worship experience'." Maybe it's a really uplifting song or the emotion in a gifted singers voice or the need to respond to a particularly powerful message. What's more, I've met and talked with many worship band leaders who will work the flow of a service specifically for the purpose of generating this kind of emotional response.

The problem, beyond emotional manipulation in the name of Jesus, is that many people I've talked to over the years mistake this emotional feeling to be genuine faith and assume that, as long as the feeling is there, faith is there. However, when the feeling is gone, they assume that God has abandoned them. In the end they essentially become addicted to that feeling and pursue it like a drug, hopping from church to church whenever they don't "feel the Spirit" anymore. In the end, many of them are no different than an alcoholic or drug addict ... they've just got church language to talk about their idol.

In the end, it breaks my heart because I see people God loves suffering because they've been pointed towards something less than what God has in store for them. I pray that preachers, worship leaders, and fellow Christians would learn to point people not to a feeling, an intellectual ascent, or some other internal source, but to Jesus and his work and promises for them.