Living as a Christian is counter-cultural

What is absolutely basic to the Christian life? Eugene Peterson argues that it is not all about us. Rather, it is all about God. Furthermore, it is not about Christians doing stuff. Rather it is about Christians participating in what God is doing. This means that Christians must act in ways and use methods that align with the actions and methods of Jesus. This is Christian integrity. This goes far beyond avoiding sexual or financial impropriety.

Unfortunately, these absolutely basic things are contrary to the culture in which many Christians live, particularly in North America. And, due to globalisation, these pernicious influences have spread.

Two things absolutely basic to the Christian life are, unfortunately, counter to most things North American, which makes this intersection a confused place, clogged with accidents, snarled traffic, and short tempers. To begin with, the Christian life is not about us; it is about God. Christian spirituality is not a life-project for becoming a better person, it is not about developing a so-called ‘deeper life.’ We are in on it, to be sure. But we are not the subject. Nor are we the action. We get included by means of a few prepositions: God with us (Matthew 1:23), Christ in me (Galatians 2:20), God for us (Romans 8:31). With…in…for…: powerful, connecting, relation-forming words, but none of them making us either subject or predicate. We are the tag-end of a prepositional phrase.

The great weakness of North American spirituality is that it is all about us: fulfilling our potential, getting in on the blessings of God, expanding our influence, finding our gifts, getting a handle on principles by which we can get an edge over the competition. And the more there is of us, the less there is of God. 

Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, page 335

The advertisement below crassly captures the powerful cultural forces working against those who want to follow Jesus.

Sooner or later in this life we get invited or commanded to do something. But in that doing, we never become the subject of the Christian life nor do we perform the action of the Christian life. We are invited or commanded into what I call prepositional participation. The prepositions that join us to God and God’s action in us within the world—the with, the in, the for—are very important, but they are essentially a matter of the ways and means of being in on and participating in what God is doing.

These ways and means are the second basic in the Christian life that are also counter to most things American. Ways and means must be appropriate to ends. We cannot participate in God’s work but then insist on doing it in our own way. We cannot participate in the building of God’s kingdom but then use the devil’s tools and nails. Christ is the way as well as the truth and the life. When we don’t do it his way, we mess up the truth and we miss out on the life.