Violate Yourself

Fiction is the worse genre of writing. Okay, well I suppose poetry that doesn't rhyme trumps fiction, but outside of scripture, who of us really reads any poetry? I have to force myself to read a couple of fiction books every year. I normally enjoy them, but I feel as if I've wasted time when you could always go and see the movie. Yes, I realize that A Walk to Remember is so much better in print, but come on people, Hollywood doesn’t spend hours making a movie so you can spend the same amount of time reading that book. Use your time wisely.

I’m an avid reader. I just rather reading things that don’t make me think too much. I might be revealing too much about my intellect here, but that’s okay since I’m attempting transparency. I spend most of my time reading Christian books and biographies. My awesome wife just bought me Steve Jobs new biography and, get this, I was reading it instead of watching the Duke game last night. What's wrong with me?

I like facts. I hate questions. I like to ask questions. I hate to answer them. That’s why I like to read books about people, Scripture, events, culture, and what not. I don’t like to search for the underlying meaning in a fiction book, because I simply don’t want to think that much about it. I suck at analyzing a story to find the symbolism. I’m a surface level guy. The water doesn’t run too deeply here. When you start telling me how awesome the Twilight and Harry Potter series are and you get into the symbolism, you lose me. I will be like, “Oh, I thought that was just a story about vampires and wizards.”

I hate answering questions to get to the deeper meaning of something.

Jesus dealt with a group of people who were like this every day. I would have made a great Jew in the Pharisees Only Club (I bet they had jackets). Tell me what to abstain from and I will. Tell me how many times to pray a day and I'll get on my knees. Except, don’t tell me not to eat bacon, because I would sin (bacon scented candles are at the top of my Christmas list). It doesn’t take much for me to become legalistic and I constantly have to battle that. Seeing how Jesus dealt with the Pharisees, he probably thinks I can be a real jerk. So I constantly have answer self-reflective questions or I become legalistic.

I realized this as I was flying through a book with a lot of self-reflection involved. I blew it up. My eyes were reading those question faster than Tony Stewart going around Bristol since there was no way I struggled with the issues. I even finished the book that night. It was a great book that I will refer to others who are in “need of some help”. But not me, I don’t need any help. I have everything under control (that’s sarcasm).

But taking time to answer those questions are vital in spiritual transformation.

Christian, there is something you can do to help in your spiritual transformation. Answer questions about yourself. You cannot live an unexamined life and expect to grow in intimacy with Christ. You have to ask and answer questions. Jesus was constantly asking the Pharisees questions. And you know what? They couldn’t answer them. What a pity to have the long awaited Messiah a sneeze away and not catch his cold!

We are the same way. So many of us aren’t growing in our faith because we don’t answer the questions that Jesus is asking. Is this you? Are you willing to stop every day and take an examination of yourself. Examinations aren’t fun. My brother always described his wife’s doctor visits for pregnancy examinations as violations. Examinations aren’t comfortable, since they violate you. They search places that are vulnerable and private, but if those places are not examined then you will experience major health problems, possibly even death.

Christian, live an examined life.  Violate your heart, soul, and mind every day with difficult questions so that you are allowing transformation to take place. Most likely if you have not been, you are either spiritually dying or already dead. Get off that spiritual death bed & ask questions. The Spirit is or wants to work to transform you, so help him out and open up. Transformation always takes place as a result of reflection.

Question:

What difficult questions do you need to ask yourself?