One Toke Over The Line

In 1988, “pen pals” were all the rage. In an effort to find a pen pal, my third grade teacher came up with a clever project for us. We were each given a stamped postcard, addressed to our school. On the back side, it had a section for us to fill in our name, grade, the current date and a short plea for the cards finder persuading them to write in their name, address and information on where they had found the card. Now to scatter these cards, we each filled a balloon with helium, tied our cards to the string and sent them off into the Littleton air. The eight-year-old me was filled with anticipation and anxiety, clinging to the hope that someone would find my card and drop it in the mail.  A week later, my card came back! My balloon had traveled all the way Wisconsin and had landed in the back yard of a fifth grader named Valerie. Boom, I had a pen pal! 

If you’re a helium-filled balloon, a gust of wind can take you far. It still amazes me that my little blue balloon traveled the 856 mile distance from Littleton, Colorado to Madison, Wisconsin. Alas, after conquering nature, my balloon met its doom and it popped. Although helium and wind had helped it conquer so much, it was now rendered useless. 

In the same way, I have experienced and have witnessed wind-chasing, helium-filled balloon faith in today’s church. As a balloon, we approach our faith like it’s a hit of helium we hope will carry us through to next Sunday.  The strength of our faith is tied to our emotional response to our religious experience. If it makes us feel good, if it makes others like us, if it causes us gain, we devote ourselves to it whole-heartedly. However, if it involves sacrifice, persecution or a surrender of comfort, we quickly depart as we confess that suddenly, something has come up.  We love the music, so long as it fits our style. We applaud the preaching, so long as it supports our ideals and preferred lifestyle. Somewhere in the midst of “Have it your way” and “Indulge yourself” we’ve missed the invitation to forsake ourselves in order to gain life and love from the One who will never leave or forsake us. 

The true pitfall to this emotionally based faith is devastating as we live one sharp encounter from total destruction. When life gets us down, when cancer overtakes someone we love, when our parents split up, when we lose our job, our house, when our balloon is punctured; we find ourselves in a situation in which another hit of helium simply cannot fix. Suddenly, we find ourselves helpless against the pull of gravity as we fall into a downward spiral of depression and hopelessness. 

The reality is that if our faith is rooted in dying to self, taking up our cross daily and following Him, we realize that it’s not about us. It’s time to say “enough!” to this floating about, aimlessly relying on our emotion to save us, define us and give us worth. We need to look to Jesus the revolutionary and surrender to the Savior. A faith based on Truth will not be shaken (or punctured). In the midst of our search for that spiritual high, we’ve missed the offering of love, joy and abundant life. We’ve settled for the convenient and the comfortable and it’s left us empty, lonely and restless. All the while, Jesus invites us to simply come to Him. “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message).     

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” – Jesus (John 10:10)