This is a post that is about 2 months in the making, but just haven’t pulled the trigger as of it. My recent post on family systems and Horton though brought up a couple thoughts that gave me enough motivation to see this one through.

One of things I struggle most with in my overall evangelical environment and context is the general anxious preoccupation with what I’m going to call “winning.” I had a couple experiences in a couple evangelical environments a couple months ago that served as a catalyst for this post. One was a normal service, but at one point the person speaking began engaging some apologetics issues – giving reasons for why Christian belief is “correct” and why a couple other belief systems were “incorrect.” The energy in the building changed. More people were sitting up straight and nodding their heads in agreement. My sense was that many people who feel small started feeling big. I started to get uncomfortable because the emphasis was on “who’s right?”

I’m not saying right (or maybe sound is better) thought is not important, if not vital, but that’s a lot different than reinforcing an environment of who’s right and who’s wrong. Seems to me to be missing the point. I know the evangelical reputation on the national scale and a lot of it is anchored in this kind of approach to taking a righteous stand. Quite often, I’ve observed key figures focusing on who’s right and who’s wrong and there’s a lot less attention being dedicated to sound thinking in general about what it means to be light in a dark world.

What does this mean to me? To me it means that there’s a lot of people who are very anxious about their place in God’s Kingdom. They don’t know what it is, they don’t understand what it means to choose the narrow path. It’s as if we want the narrow path but also want the perks and status of being in the majority.

As a follower of Jesus, I’m continuing to come to terms with the reality that following him means being marginalized while at the same time being an agent of grace and witness to the marginalized at the same time. This requires a security of who is our Master and an acceptance of what it means to have our identity firmly anchored in Jesus. Jesus said something to the effect of “If they do these things to me, what do you think they are going to you?” We have to grow comfortable that our calling as disciples is not to be “right” but to be “light.” Seems like a lot of people get those two confused.

“Right” is simple and it’s cognitive, “Light” is a truth of another kind. Light is tangible, experiential, aesthetic, and has many dynamic qualities. Light is true. It is distinct from darkness and penetrates darkness. I want to be sound philosophically and theologically. I believe Jesus is the only way to life in God’s Kingdom as he makes clear in the Scriptures. However, I’d rather embody that soundness of thought in a witness that is light, not right.

I just don’t think there’s a lot of “light” in needing to prove to ourselves we’re on the winning team. That reflects an anxious faith. If we’re on the “winning team” we can be secure in that and freely embody to the world those qualities that are light in dark world.

So the motto here is…less right, more light.