think I really began liking
God Stuff back in the Jesus Movement days. The Jesus Movement was part
revival and part group identity. The group identity carried a lot of
stuff with it – "Jesus Music" concerts, embroidered
"One Way" patches on old bell bottoms, "Maranatha"
bumper stickers on cars and guitar cases, and abused-looking Good
News for Modern Man New Testaments. Those who were mainly there for
the group identity eventually drifted off, leaving both God and their
God Stuff behind. However, there were plenty who made genuine
commitments. They matured, growing out of the early Jesus Movement
culture along with their bell bottoms (but perhaps keeping the Larry
Norman albums somewhere in the garage).
A friend of mine coined the
term "God Stuff" a few years ago, who, in a moment of honesty,
confessed that he sometimes wondered how committed he really was to God;
he just really loved God Stuff. That comment remained with me and I have
come to find that I, too, have carried on a relationship with the
"stuff" about God, often in place of an active relationship with
God. Often these things and activities appear so religious and/or
spiritual that we have a hard time distinguishing between the stuff
about God and God himself.
I have, for the most part, been
turned off by the obvious God Stuff. You know what I mean, things like
schmaltzy pictures of Jesus, message T-shirts, Christian fiction (isn’t
that an oxymoron?) or plastic stick-on fish symbols (an upgrade of the
bumper sticker – you can even get them in gold to match the gold trim
on your Mercedes). I am way beyond that; instead, I have a house full of
theology books, on subjects ranging from big words like eschatology to
books about worship and loving God. I have a plethora of Bibles in
various obscure translations, and books about the Bible in languages I
can’t even read. I have collected sermon tapes from some of the
biggest names in modern churchdom, and I have an impressive collection
of worship music on CD.
Now, I am not implying that any
of this is in itself wrong. In fact, all of this, including plastic
stick-on fish, can be beneficial and may bring you or others closer to
God. The problem is that we can get so enamored with God Stuff that it
becomes a God substitute, and we don’t even realize that it is
happening.
I think we often become God
"fans," treating God like some rock star. We read every book
and magazine article we can find about the object of our obsession. We
collect "trading cards" and we hang up posters. We go where he
hangs out in the hope that we might see him. We dream of meeting him and
rehearse what we would say. Someday we may even be lucky enough to get
an autograph! But how many of us actually develop a relationship with
such a famous person?
When we become fans instead of
friends we develop a relationship with our perceptions instead of a
person, and our perception may bear very little resemblance to reality.
Often we would be disappointed to find out that the person is not who we
imagined they were. In fact, fans occasionally become so upset that they
actually kill the object of their obsession. Whoa – does this sound
familiar?
