Take up your cross…
My kids and I were in the neighborhood of the Crystal Cathedral last Sunday, so we went to a service there. It was quite a show – the music was good and there were some big name choirs and musicians, the surroundings were beautiful, the speaker was entertaining, and there was a brunch afterward for visitors in the building with the large gift shop. We each were given a copy of Robert Schuller’s book, “If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It.”
The book, as well as the core of the belief system of this church, is that if we stay positive, we can succeed at what we want to do. God wants us to be happy, healthy, and successful in this life. In the book, Schuller tells us to use four affirmations to keep away despair and to attract success. In the service, people were encouraged to come forward for prayer after the service to be healed of physical ills or to become more financially secure in these troubled economic times.
It’s not the worst theology in the world. At least they’re not using the Bible as a weapon to scare people or justify excluding them from church life. There’s way too much of that going on in religion. But these teachings are not exactly true to all of what Jesus called people to be and do. Jesus didn’t say to “take up your dreams and follow your hearts.” He said to take up your cross and follow him. And when the rich young ruler asked what it would take to gain eternal life, Jesus told him to sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor.
How did Jesus dying on a cross as a criminal, at a young age, turn into a belief that God wants us to live our dreams and be successful?
Amen, Sister!