July 16th, 2006
Drive-Thru Life Lessons
(shot on W. Market Street in Greensboro, North Carolina)
And *that’s* my beef with organized religion.
Call me crazy, but I like to trip, fall, learn from the experience and re-approach society with lessons in tow. To me, that’s what life is all about. If I were reared with any of the organized play-books for life… man, I don’t know. I trust the aggregate of reads much more than any singular text.
Tags: Christianity, community, funny, Greensboro, North Carolina, philosophy, reality, religion.
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“It’s easier to be born again than to grow up.”
I know that’s right! You speak truth, Brother Sean. ;)
But the deeper truth is that one can’t ever really accomplish the latter until after one has experienced the former. Hmmmm… Think on that. ;) [Hint: This might help.]
P.S. I like the church sign thingies. Very thought-provoking and cool. Hey… that kinda describes you, Sean… ;)
Cara,
I’ve achieved the latter without the former. All people need is faith in themselves and those around them. I don’t personally need a diety of anykind to get through my life and the problems that I face or will face. To each their own, but for me it’s a huge no to organized religion. I have my friends, family, spouse and the blogisphere to guide me through.
No knock on you personally, just my opinion and how I conduct myself and my life.
it’s hard to have this conversation in public, because i don’t want to offend people that i care about (such as you, CM), but this slogan attitude of “take a christ pill and attend church in the morning” says much about the non-critical thinking mentality of our society. it’s a dangerous state of mind; one that can, and is, taken advantage of by political leadership all the time…
What REALLY bothers me is that little bit of Spanish at the bottom. I mean, if you can’t get good ole fashioned ‘Murikan at Church, where can ya?
@bruce: haha
Bruce: LOL!!!
Sean: “…because i don’t want to offend people that i care about (such as you, CM)…” Which automatically means that whatever you say after that is NOT going to offend me because I’m too busy going, “Awww, that is SO nice of him!!” I get distracted easily like that because I’m a non-critical thinker. (Hahahaha, that made me giggle. Loudly.)
Jay: “The blogosphere will guide us through.” (paraphrased, ok) That should be on a bumper sticker. For real. ;)
@CM: touche… okay, so do me a favor and deconstruct that sign for me. seriously.
P.S., For real though, it’s NOT this easy: “take a christ pill and attend church in the morning.” I mean, yeah that sounds good on paper, but it’s not like that. Salvation is a free gift, but it’s not the end of the road. (Unless you die the moment after you’re saved. Which is probably rare.)
To follow Christ you have to do what Jesus did. That requires action. And obedience. And it often means doing the exact opposite of what your flesh wants to do. (Like helping someone else when you’d rather focus on your own needs. Or like showing love and patience to somebody even when, right that second, you’re feeling the urge to smack ‘em. LOL. Funny. Still true. Not that I’ve ever felt that way… *grin*)
It’s not called the “narrow road” for nothing. But we’re not on it alone either. The Holy Spirit lives in all believers. He’s comforts and convicts. And thankfully, never leaves. :)
Sometimes Christians use flip little slogans and signs and t-shirts to get people’s attention. Maybe it’s a dumb idea. But this one got yours, and we all got to exchange thoughts about it, so hey… Maybe it’s not all bad, huh? ;)
Sean, just saw your last comment. I hadn’t heard this particular phrase before. It’s a true statement, but I’m not really sure where they were going with it.
heh… nice critical thinking, CM. ;-)
so this is how i break down that billboard line. aside from a goofy play on words, essentially it’s saying the opposite of what you just told me.
growing up is (IMHO) a process in which we each “narrow” our roads to a general (or specific) mixture of morality, wisdom, self-confidence, apperception, etc. this slogan is basically saying “give yourself to christ, and he’ll do the hard work for you.” based on your previous comment, i’d say that flies directly in the face of what you believe to be a post-born again lifestyle.
wouldn’t that be false advertising? even hypocritical?
“…false advertising? even hypocritical?”
Well, yeah. But really, I just don’t think that they thought it through. It is easier to be born again than to grow up, but you still have to grow up. Spiritual maturity is a goal for Christians. And the New Testament letters (like Galatians, Ephesians, etc.) guide us in doing that. But again, it requires faith, right choices, obedience, action.
So yeah, not the best sign ever. ;)
Well, yeah. But really, I just don’t think that they thought it through.
so should people take them seriously? i mean, we’re talking about giving your life to Him, the big guy and a segment of His flock screws up His message on a friggin’ billboard… what faith should anyone have in their ability to provide guidance along that narrow road?
Sean, about the “narrow road,” these are the words of Jesus Christ Himself in Matthew 7:13-14:
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
Jesus told His followers that following Him would be difficult. If you read Jesus’ own words in the New Testament, you’ll see that He didn’t play. He let people know that they’d have to give up everything to follow Him. But the cost is insignificant compared to the reward. Eternally and temporally. I already know that.
I also know that some people claim Him, but never really give up their lives and follow after His. That is heartbreaking. Seriously. And there are those of us who follow Him for a while and then get stuck focusing on ourselves for a while, and then have to be reminded by the Holy Spirit to get back where we belong, behind Jesus. So that’s me. LOL. A lot of us, I guess. He never lets us go, though. That’s so awesome. :)
Peace, CM
i can see that… so then what’s the point of organized religion when we’re all imperfect? (not JC, just us leftovers)
“…His flock screws up His message on a friggin’ billboard… what faith should anyone have in their ability…”
Well it may have just been one dude with a bad sense of humor. ;) And I wouldn’t hold one questionable sign against ‘em, anyway. (Somebody must have thought it was funny or catchy or something. Obviously, it was attention-getting.)
They’re not really advertising the sheep though, they’re pointing to the Shepherd. And that’s who you put your faith in. And He doesn’t just guide you on the narrow road. He walks it with you. Regardless of what any of the other sheep are doing. ;)
okay, so let me see if i have this right:
it’s easier to be born again than to grow up because you’ll be walking with Jesus, and, well, he’s one helluva partner on a road trip… and this personal relationship will fill the voids and gap the divides…
is that about right?
“…what’s the point of organized religion…”
Jesus participated in organized religion and so do His followers. The Church (universal) is the Body of Christ on this earth and its purpose to spread the Gospel. Individual churches provide teaching, discipleship, fellowship, accountability, training for missions and evangelism, prayer, and observance of the sacraments (baptism, communion) — with the purpose of communicating the Gospel of Christ and maturing believers. The goal is to BE the Church though, not just to DO church, if that makes sense. It’s about becoming like Jesus. Obviously there are differences in how different groups of people see that and carry that out, though. So… yeah. But I think that’s the Biblical idea, anyway. ;)
“…it’s easier to be born again than to grow up because you’ll be walking with Jesus, and, well, he’s one helluva partner on a road trip… and this personal relationship will fill the voids and gap the divide…”
That rocks. You said it way better. ;) Although I’d add a few words and make it say this:
“…it’s easier to be born again AND THEN grow up WITH JESUS because THEN you’ll be walking with HIM, and, well, he’s one HECKuva partner on a road trip… and this personal relationship will fill the voids and gap the divide…AND THEN AT THE END YOU’LL HAVE ETERNITY WITH HIM…”
see, i get that. forget the church being the body of christ and all the ceremony and imperfect people that comes with it… i get the personal relationship thing.
the only difference between your relationship with Him and my relationship with my greater power (for lack of a better definition), is that in my mind i’m walking towards my higher power following the trail it’s blazed through all of us…
see, it’s more fun for me this way, ’cause that mofo’ has ADD and skips all around the place. i’ve almost wrecked a few times when it slammed on the brakes. and that time it popped out from behind a tree!? my heart is still fluttering…
Sean. You. Crack. Me. Up.
Another difference is that I’m not allowed to use naughty words to describe Jesus. ;)
For real, I’m laughing out loud and people are going to wake up.
Jesus loves you. Me, too. Hugs from both of us. ;)
no more hugging! my mofo’ gets jealous…
HugsHeadnod from both of us. ;)
(Imagine… Jealous of a hug from Jesus… *grin*)
‘Night, dude.
nah, you’re the one it’s jealous of… ;) g’night.
Neat thread. Can I add something I heard from a woman who is half native american, half african american, and born to a baptist preacher? The morning she told her father she wanted to be a catholic (she was 16 at the time) he took a quiet sip from his coffee cup and said “All roads lead to God.” That was it.
Cara, you do Christians a world of good. Sean, you do the same for the folks who share your beliefs (creative clockmakers?). And they say you shouldn’t talk religion at cocktail partys. Pshaw.
:-)
I read the sign to mean “Growing up is hard and involves taking responsibility for your own ethics and actions, and means that you have to think about your place in the world. Being born again, however, is easy and doesn’t require any of that kind of effort.”
I thought the sign was implying that when you choose to be born again you are excused from difficult adult-style critical thinking and adult responsibilities. George Bush being a prime example of this. I actually thought that this sign was produced by one of those make-your-own fake church sign web sites. Oh well.
I think what the sign really means is “Even if you’re still a child, come on in and get born again.” The Amish forbid children from making this sort of decision — they say that only an adult can have the intelligence and maturity to choose Jesus willingly. The church in the photo, I suspect, disagrees and is happy inculcating children who can barely read much less understand what the Bible means. I mean look at the name of the church: The Family Harvest Church. They are harvesting families. It’s kind of creepy.
dude, it’s way creepy. i almost ran off the road just to get a picture. but then again, i’ve seen stranger church setups down here…
Control, Alt, Delete heathen savage!
tex!? where’ve you been?