What God Does Not Deal with Very Well

"Christianity as a Religion of Responsibility" series, Part 1

Pardon me if I sound judgy for a moment, but sometimes people drive me absolutely bonkers.

Sometimes I watch people do things, I scratch my head, and I wonder to myself, “What are you doing? What are you thinking?”

For example, many years ago I was hanging out in a bar having a conversation with someone. I had a beer and he had a whisky drink. We were talking about politics.

The main discussion revolved around social programs and helping the poor. He was adamantly opposed to giving people money because they were just going to spend it on drugs and alcohol. If people want to spend their money on drugs and alcohol, they should have to earn it. 

Paraphrasing his overall argument: “Giving people money who are going to be irresponsible with it is irresponsible.”

While we were having this conversation, we were also having another parallel conversation strangely woven into it. You see he had lost his job a couple of months prior, and now he was unemployed. Since he couldn’t afford a place of his own without income, he was staying at his parents' home and they were helping him out financially. After all, he was family.

Meanwhile…

Here he was in a bar more than spending at least $25 on drinks that night.

He was embodying the very thing he stood against for other people. 

Yes, this kind of thing drives me crazy.

What does it mean to be responsible?

Don't get me wrong. I totally get where he's coming from. We have to be careful when it comes to enabling people who continuously engage in irresponsible behavior. With that, I would agree.

But in retrospect, I think we have different understandings of what it means to be “responsible”.

For him, it's about balancing the budget. At the end of the day, whether you are responsible is measured by whether your bank account is in the red or the black.

For me, it was about caring for others. It was about caring for creation. It was about nurturing life.

And all that, for me, has not changed.

God can handle sin, but not…

Several years back I was watching a video series called Living the Questions. It was meant to articulate a progressive approach to Christianity.

In one of the episodes, historical Jesus scholar John Dominic Crossan said something like, “In the Bible, we see that God can handle sin. What God can't handle is irresponsibility.”

This call to be responsible for the people around us and our world was key to his understanding of the call to become heralds of the Kingdom of God as Christians.

In short, we don't have to worry about the sin in our lives, because God has already taken care of that through Jesus. Now we are free to refocus our attention on caring for one another. 

“All things in moderation”

That understanding has had a huge effect on me. As a result, throughout my own ministry in life, I've talked about the importance of being responsible in many different ways.

I'm sure you've heard the phrase, “All things in moderation”. Ultimately, all that statement is trying to do is call people to be responsible with whatever it is that they're doing.

It's not about whether you should or should not drink alcohol. It's about if you choose to drink alcohol, do it responsibly.

It's not about whether you should or should not smoke pot. It's about if you choose to smoke pot, do it responsibly.

It's not whether you should or should not donate your time to a charity. It's about if you choose to donate your time to a charity, do it responsibly.

Are you being responsible?

Of course, in each of those situations, you have to ask the question, “What does doing that behavior responsibly look like?

I can't answer that question for anyone. That's a question everybody has to ask for themselves. 

For what it’s worth, I think the actual questioning around responsibility itself is the most important part of the equation. The more you question whether your behaviors are responsible, the more you naturally develop responsible behaviors. So everyone needs to go through their own personal discernment process.

That being said, I think part of your discernment process has to include the effects of the questioned behaviors on your life and the lives of others.

• Are you developing health issues? 

• Are you developing issues at work? 

• Are you developing issues in your family life?

If you are engaging in an activity that is having detrimental effects on your life or on the people around you, you may have crossed the line into irresponsibility.

Also, if you are afraid to ask the question about the extent to which a behavior you're engaging in is responsible, that too may be a sign that maybe you've crossed the line into irresponsibility.

This month, I want to explore some common areas of human life that we should be especially attentive to as Christians when it comes to being responsible. I hope you will join me for the next article in the series.

Peace, Bo
www.evolvingchristianfaith.net

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