Life is Hard. God is Good. Let’s Dance.
MARCH 9, 2024
Lately I’ve been reading a lot of manifestos by people, usually religious celebrities, who are publicly announcing they’re leaving the faith or on their way out the door.
They’ve deconstructed and found they have nothing left.
I do understand where they are coming from. I’ve seen toxic religion so up close and personal it hurts. As I mentioned, I get this a lot from people who know how I grew up, in a pastor’s home filled with terrifying religious hypocrisy: “How in the world did you wind up a Jesus follower?”
It’s a fine question.
I’ve seen such deep ugliness, and not just as a kid. I’ve seen how professional Christians have transformed so much of “church” into an industry. I’ve seen people drag Jesus into their political power plays, on the Left and Right. Working in Christian music radio, I’ve had to protest plans to mislead listeners for fundraising purposes, and I’ve even quit jobs over it.
I counted the other day—full-time church pastors I’ve personally known who have cheated on their wives and been found out: fourteen so far, including my dad. In several incidents, I’ve been treated dismissively by religious leaders and preachers . . . until they find out I have a platform, which is when I’m suddenly richly deserving of their time and attention.
Ugh.
I’ve had to do more than a little deconstruction myself, reconsidering what Jesus had in mind for His church and determining what being His disciple means and what it doesn’t. I’ve asked questions about my own motives. Sometimes I’ve felt like I’m barely hanging on.
But I’m not writing a manifesto or a declaration. (If I did, I would use a quill, because quills are cool.) But my point is, I’m not going to write one, because here’s something I’ve noticed about these “I’m leaving Christianity” statements, something very, very odd: They don’t mention Jesus.
Or His kingdom.
You see, this King, and this kingdom, are the reasons I can’t leave. So I’m always left wondering, Okay, I get the critique. Makes sense. But . . . what about Jesus? Isn’t that what you were here for?
And you don’t even mention Him?
Honestly, if Jesus were just a side issue, I could understand why you’d leave Christianity. I’m not in this for the Christian pop culture or even the T-shirts, including the “Lord’s Gym” one where Jesus is doing push-ups with the cross on His back and it says, “Bench Press This!” Not even that one. I’m not in it for that. That’s not enough.
I’m not in it for the Christian movies, either, including the one with the guy from Growing Pains who works as a fireman, although I bet it was probably a good movie. Maybe. I don’t know. My point is, I’m not in this for that.
There’s rarely a day on social media when I don’t read about some Christian leader doing something scandalous, stupid, or just plain embarrassing. Then I’ll see equally embarrassing comments and posts in response from people I know. I feel like I can spend a good portion of the day face-palming. I, like many before me, ask myself whether I seriously want to be associated with this lunacy.
What in the world?!
The cultural tide is strong, it’s pulling the other way, and if my experience of the Christian thing was based on weekly worship concerts with fog machines or church-camp memories or the mega-scandal of the day or politely served chicken sandwiches—however zesty—well, I’m out of here too.
But I’m convinced of this: Once we’ve seen the reality of the kingdom of God, it’s very hard to walk away. It’s just too good.
This is why I’m telling all these stories in this book: Do you see how good the Kingdom is? People are still being healed. The last are being put first. The underdogs are having their day. Tears from pain are being turned into tears of joy.
It’s happening. The Kingdom really IS breaking through.
Even people like me, people who are cynical by nature or struggle to be spiritual in some emotional way—once we “get it”, once we see how good this all is, this Kingdom of God, well… nothing else will do.
Taken from Life is Hard. God is Good. Let’s Dance by Brant Hansen. Copyright January 2024 by Brant Hansen. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, www.thomasnelson.com.