"Look What I Found!": Blind Squirrels and Spiritual Truth

By David Ryser

Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn sometimes.  (Proverb)

I do a lot of driving, both on my job and in my personal life.  Driving is not exciting to me…and I suppose it’s best that way.  “Driving” and “excitement” are two words that should probably never appear in the same sentence.  In my experience, excitement while driving is almost always a bad thing.  But driving can be boring, which poses its own risks.  So I look for ways to keep myself mentally engaged while driving.

I particularly enjoy reading church building marquees.

There are lots of opportunities to read church building marquees.  Church buildings are everywhere… like pubs (and for the same reasons).  Reading the marquees, I often muse about the folks who gather in these buildings…and why they do.  What sorts of people attend the services?  Do they love Jesus?  Do they even know Him?  Does Jesus attend their church meetings?  Would I be welcomed in their services…and for how long?

I’ve come to suspect that the message on a church building marquee says a lot about the people who meet inside.

Many messages I read on church building marquees are…to put it politely…religious tripe.  Many others are merely advertising of some kind.  I suspect that the latter is less harmful than the former.  Few people are harmed by advertising.  Far more are poisoned by drinking the religious bilge served in the average church service.

But I digress.

My current favorite example of a church building marquee message that encourages me to stay out of the building at all costs is one I saw in a small rural town.  The sign reads:  IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE BREAD OF LIFE, YOU’RE TOAST.  I must admit that my first reaction was to laugh.  A part of me found the sign to be quite funny…if somewhat counter-productive…and it amused me.

After all, if you’re going to engage in religious buffoonery, at least have the decency to be entertaining.

But what kind of message does this send to people?  Much of what is communicated in Christian evangelism…by whatever media…seems to portray God as saying, “Love Me…or else.”  Or else what?  Or else I’ll curse you?  Cause you to be sick?  Harm you, your family, and your children?  Burn you forever in the fires of hell?

Who can resist such an invitation?  Doesn’t this just make you want to run into your heavenly Daddy’s arms?

Jesus never…ever…not even once…issued such an invitation to people.  He did encourage them to meet and relate intimately with the Father.  A Father who desperately loved them.  A Father who wanted very much to fellowship with them.  A Father who would not reject them, but who would receive them with gladness into His embrace.

It’s been my experience that it’s not necessary to threaten a person in order to persuade them to love someone who loves them this much.

So I don’t find much truth on church building marquees.  And when I do, I often suspect that it’s an accident.  For example, I was driving past a church building recently, and the message on the marquee read:  NEED A NEW LIFE?  GOD ACCEPTS TRADE-INS.  I found the message clever, and was about to pass it out of my thinking.

And then the truth of the message exploded in my spirit.

You see, too many Christians…myself included…tend to view our faith as a spiritual automobile repair.  Our car (life) is broken, so we take it into the mechanic (Jesus) who repairs (“saves”) it and returns it to us with an admonishment to drive more carefully (live the “Christian life”) and maintain it more diligently (develop robust spiritual disciplines) in the future.  This sounds good, but is found nowhere in the Bible.

The Christian life is less like a car repair, and more like a trade-in for a new car.

With a trade-in, a person takes his/her old car (old life) to the dealer (Jesus) and exchanges it for a new car (new life).  Ownership of the old car is relinquished to the dealer, and the previous owner forfeits all future rights to it.  Signs away the title.  Turns in the key.   Walks away from the old car and begins to drive the new car, never to own or drive the old car ever again.

This is Paul’s view of the Christian life.

Especially in his letters to the Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, Paul presents the Christian faith as an exchange of life.  We die and receive Christ’s life.  We trade in our old man for the new man.  We no longer live out of the old life; but rather, we walk in the newness of Christ’s life.  And as the seed of Christ’s life which has been planted in us takes root and grows, it displaces our old life and we progressively come out of the spiritual darkness into God’s light.  We live “in Christ” (a term found dozens of times in the Epistles), and Christ lives in us.

God not only accepts trade-ins, He welcomes them.

So now I’m left wondering if the people who worship and fellowship inside of this church building are living in…or are even aware of…the truth expressed on their building’s marquee.  It’s one thing for a blind squirrel to stumble across an acorn, but this good fortune does the squirrel no good unless it recognizes the acorn as an acorn.  Otherwise, the squirrel will mistake the acorn for a rock…or some other inedible object…and kick it aside and resume the search for food, never realizing how close it came to enjoying the feast that it was seeking.

Religion is a lot like that squirrel.

I probably will never go into that church building.  I don’t even remember where it is.  But as I went on my way, the message on the marquee continued to ring in my spirit.

NEED A NEW LIFE?  GOD ACCEPTS TRADE-INS.

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com