- Walking out one’s Christian faith is more messy than it is dreamy – with real life situations that can be bleak and difficult.
The late missionary E. Stanley Jones, in his treatment of the Sermon on the Mount, recalled the advice given by one woman to the congregation, upon hearing him preach: “After this address tonight, I do not think we should have any questions. We should go home and dream and dream.”
To which Jones responded, “Jesus knew how easy it would be to go away after hearing his words and ‘dream and dream,’ so his last words are we should go down from the mount and do and do.”
A large swath of Christendom recoils at the idea that our faith is, indeed, something that needs to be done. But in the Hebrew, the word for “know” (yada) indicates something far more profound than simple intellectual attainment. Rather, its root meaning is to experience or to encounter.
Jones balked at a “dream and dream” faith. Far too many of us embrace a “dreamy” religion, happy to be caught up in reverie that is far more fantasy than reality. The more I live and minister among the needy of our state, the more I recognize that walking out one’s Christian faith is more messy than it is dreamy – with real life situations that can be bleak and difficult. And yet, that is where the abundant life belongs: in the midst of sometimes unpleasant and inconvenient situations, bringing hope to the hopeless and heaven to those ensnared in the kingdom of darkness.
Jones could just as easily have bemoaned a “think and think” faith. In Athens, where Paul preached but was apparently unable to establish a church, Scripture records, “all the Athenians…who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.” They loved debating theology; they just didn’t seem to want to commit to Truth. And committing requires action.
Some have a “bemoan and groan” approach to the Gospel. This seems to have been the overarching attitude of Jesus’ enemies. They griped about what He was doing, when He was doing it, and how He was doing it, in large measure because He didn’t fit their idea of the coming Messiah. Don’t mistake “bemoan and groan” for a lack of seriousness; this negativity was what got Jesus nailed to the cross.
Here’s the deal – the Kingdom needs dreamers. They can remind us of the power of mustard seed faith and can add lift to our proverbial wings. We need thinkers. Among some branches of the church, a misplaced pride in anti-intellectualism risks swerving us into a ditch called heresy. And bemoaners and groaners, when acting in concert with the Lord, might otherwise be known as the prophets and those reflecting the second beatitude – “Blessed are those who mourn…”
Doers need dreamers, thinkers, and bemoaners and groaners. But at the end of the day, the transformation that results from placing our faith in Christ necessarily produces changed behavior as our lives are increasingly aligned with God’s truth. And it is through our growing Christlikeness in word and deed that the world will know – encounter and experience – the profundity of our belief in Him.
Matt Friedeman
