Deconstructing your faith

The term deconstructing your faith is used often these days. I don't really like that term because I think its misleading. I think most people who walk away from Christianity just stop building or stopped a long time ago. Maybe they finally found the courage to be honest with themselves. Maybe they just built their faith on the sand and not on the rock, like Jesus alludes to in Matthew 7. Maybe they don't like the Christianity they see in others, or they don't believe in the version of a God many Christians depict. As Rob Bell says, "I don't believe in that God either."

Evangelicals tend to use the term in a disapproving way. When I was growing up, anyone who strayed from the path was called a backslider. Our first response is often an attempt to rescue these people and bring them back into the fold. Maybe we need to help them tear down instead. The catch is that if we jump in to help, we may need to do some re-building ourselves. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to build things his way, constructed according to the image of Christ, not the image of our Christianity.

I'll be honest, everyday there are parts of my life I try to build my own way. Then the next day I have to tear it down and try to build it the right way. I keep rebuilding until I get it right because I desperately want to have a real relationship with this Jesus Christ who is everything to me. That's just how the spiritual journey goes for us humans on this side of eternity. We need to be in a community of people who get that. We need people who will jump in and help us get it right!

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