Christianity and Having Fun – Part 2

Correcting Others and the Need to be Right

Even when a person makes the transition from law to grace – they can still be rather dull and serious when it comes to scripture. For some people, grace can become the next Christian fad that they have to master. Some Christians just want to be right all the time and they seem to believe that it is their God-given role in life to correct everybody else who is not “on the same page” as they are. This urge Christians have to correct other Christians, is one of Darin Hufford’s “pet peeves”. Darin often complains on The Free Believers Network podcasts, that he always seems to have people trying to correct him – even when he makes the most trivial statements!

I’ll admit I know what it’s like: I’ve been just like that when it comes to correcting people - and up until quite recently as well. I used to go on the grace Christian forums, trying to correct people and putting my point of view across. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with forums – forums can be a great place to learn and share – but you really need to question your motives for writing what you do. I remember wanting to help other people out, but just as strong – if not stronger, was the desire to be right and for others to acknowledge it. I’ve really cooled-off on the forums now and hardly ever use them nowadays.

Learning to Live Again

What I hear from the The Free Believers Network podcasts quite a lot, is the fact that when you come into the message of grace and out of the institutional church system – it’s as if you have to re-learn to live your life again. You can end-up feeling frustrated, angry and disillusioned at having lost years of your life to the mindless devotion that you had towards all-things church. This was mentioned in a recent podcast episode entitled Trading in Your Principles, 10^th July 2010. The hosts compared it with like becoming a toddler again. I can relate to that in a big way: I feel as if I am beginning to re-learn a lot of things.

I remember one of the hosts, Kim Scott, saying during one of the episodes, that she had to literally teach herself not to say “religious” things so often, such as “God, Jesus, church.” I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but we can train ourselves to be unnatural and downright quirky when we obsess about using church-terms.

During another podcast, the hosts laughed about the way in which people in the church have trained themselves to use Hebrew words, such as Hallelujah. I had to laugh at this one! I mean, a word like “Hallelujah” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue does it? I don’t mean to be disrespectful towards God or the Bible, and I don’t believe that I am, but wouldn’t it be better to just use your own words? Why don’t we, as Christians, just use words that are spontaneous such as, “Alright!” or “Woo Hoo!?”