Christianese?

  
Sometimes I feel like I am doomed to speak fluently and convincingly in a language that I do not understand. I am conditioned to speak Christianese.The situation is so drastic that there are times when I can't even explain something without using words that have been ingrained in my vocabulary by the churchy culture I grew up in. Every now and then I will catch myself saying something only to realize that I don't even know what it means. Worse even, sometimes I say Christiany things that, if I was completely honest with myself, I don't mean at all.
    For example, there is a line in the Lord's prayer that says, "forgive us our sins, as we forgive others". Now I've said this prayer plenty of times, but when I analyze it a little bit I realize that it's not something I want to say. Why in the world would I tell God to forgive me based on how well I forgive others? That's crazy talk, right?  I mean, I struggle with forgiving others, it's really hard. If somebody wrongs me or tries to take advantage of me, it pisses me off. I don't want to turn the other cheek I want to make sure that person is brought to justice, and if that doesn't happen I take justice into my own hands. Really forgiving somebody, not just saying it but living like it too, is not something that I'm accustomed to, and yet I have the audacity to tell God to forgive me as I forgive others.
   So why do I say things, and do things without thinking about what they actually mean? How did I allow myself to become so conditioned by my culture, that words that should carry meaning, and power, and serious implications have been reduced to mindless babble? I recognize the need to un-condition myself, but I'm not even sure what that process would look like. So for now I guess I will just resign to a simple plea, God please help me break the chains of saying words without meaning.

Standing on the desk!

The Dead Poet's Society, in my opinion may be one of the best films ever made. Robin Williams plays an inspiring young teacher named John Keating who believes that education is not so much about teaching your students facts, but teaching them how to think for themselves. In this clip takes a good illustration and turns it into an even better invitation. 


"I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way... You see, the world looks very differently from up here..." is an illustration, but "Don't believe me? Come see for yourselves." is an invitation. Keating does not just want his students to think about what it would be like to stand on the desk, he wants them to experience it first hand. 
I think I am guilty of looking at the life of Jesus in this same way: as an illustration of a way to live. As if the sole purpose of Jesus' visit to earth was to set an example of a good life for us to look at. But maybe Jesus doesn't want us to think of it as an illustration at all, maybe it was an invitation. What if Jesus is saying, "I want you to look at the world in a completely different way, I want you to see it how I see it"? What if He didn't come to set a bunch of standards and guidelines for us to live up to, but instead He came to invite us to live a life completely transformed- a life full of beauty, mystery, and power beyond anything we could even hope to imagine? What if that life He is calling us to is the one that deep down in our hearts we know we were created for all along?
Could it even be possible that Jesus wants to be a part of my story, and me to be a part of His? 
... I certainly hope so!