Blog, Blogging, and other Drugs

This blog will be, at the very least, honest. Can I promise anything better than mediocre writing, seemingly continual wit, and 3-5 guaranteed grammar mistakes per entry? No. But I will do my best.

Now to tell you a bit about myself.

My name is Travis Radaz. The rest I am going to let you glean through reading my posts. Make it like a game.

Alright, I will tell you one more thing. I love Jesus Christ a whole lot. The reason I share that with you is a simple one, it is the most important thing to me in my life.

This may be a turning away point for many of you. "Why read another religious, in your face, article about how wrong I am and how badly I am in need of some 'god'?" That is not my intention at all. To remain true to the title of this blog, my goal is to simply record and comment on things that I notice, things that I feel passionately about, things that I feel that I can comment on. That being said, many of the things I notice and feel strongly enough to write about are going to end up being about Jesus, for the same reasons why Charles Barkley is still on TV commentating basketball and not the LPGA Tour. You're gonna talk about what you care about.

So today's topic is going to make and lose supporters on both sides. Let's talk about religion.

Webster defines religion as "a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices." Obviously we have all encountered some facet of religion in our lives. I would strongly argue that a person does not have to be involved in a church, mosque, synagogue, or anything else to be a person of religion, there are many things in this world that our worshiped that are not in the form of a deity.

So here's where I lose more people (but hopefully gain some back)- I hate the idea of modern religion. It seems to me that our culture has gone two directions. One that is in complete defiance of any sort of out side force (whether that be human or not) having any control of any aspect of any one's life, and the other is    an over embrace of tradition, rite, and ritual that leaves the heart devoid of any sort of passion. The latter is how I feel today's secular culture views the modern church.

I get frustrated with both sides, but mainly I would like to call out the church on this one.

Before I get more into this, I would like to point out two things. The first being that I am guilty of ALL things that I bring to attention, and only bring them up only to challenge those who read, and the second is that I do not believe this is how all churches ARE, but rather how churches are perceived.

I don't know if any of you have ever been watching TV or a movie, or perhaps reading a book or listening to the radio, and there is a Christian portrayed as a judgmental, wishy washy, "I'm not going to step on your toes" push over who is simply there as a mocking point or as a character who turns out to be corrupted from their "religion." This cultural mural that spreads to all corners is our fault.

Too often, we allow ourselves (as the church) to resolve to "winning" people over as opposed to "earning" people over. The "winning" approach leads to a "club" mentality, one that promotes the thought process that someone has to be a certain way or act a certain way to be allowed to enter in. The "earning" approach is the one that I think Christ perfected. He used conversation, giving, love, and even miracles to earn the trust and vulnerability necessary from someone to help lead them to a place of committing to believe in Him.

So as the church, as the body of Christ, I think our main goal should be to emulate Christ in every way that we can.

When I think of Christ and what He did, there are two things that immediately come to mind. First, He was the furthest thing from a push over. Culturally he shook things up almost constantly, challenging the religious authority, talking to the people who wouldn't be talked to by anyone. Second, He showed love and grace to every single person that He came into contact with, whether they were sick, disabled, rude, greedy, selfish, or even demon possessed.

So how does all of this tie in? I work at a church that is focused on reflecting Christ in all actions, and I am in close contact with people who are involved in numerous other churches who share the same goals. There is a huge global collection of believers and followers of Him that are bold like Christ, that love like Christ. The problem is that the media and the secular cultural as a whole latches onto the negative side of Christianity with everything that they have, and then that becomes our defining point, out label.

I think it is entirely possible and entirely necessary for us as the body of Christ to do everything we can not give any affirmation to claims that the world makes on us. If we were to make our goal to reflect Christ in every action, interaction, thought and word on a local and personal level, would we not soon be able to diminish the claims the world has against us?

That being said, Jesus told us that the world would hate us, so I do not think that a removal of the persecution of the church is possible. I do believe, however, that if we make it our goal to be holy, to be set apart, that we would have an effect on a person as an individual. How much more effective is our word when it comes from a tender, trustworthy heart?

I have an issue with religion, because we have become overly focused on the tradition and neglected the heart. Maintaining a posture like this will continue to push non-believers away and build up the walls that allow anyone to approach. We MUST seek to be more like Christ, at all times, at all moments.

The glory of God is meant for all of His creation. I have faith in the body of Christ, in the things we are able to accomplish, but only because it is through Jesus Christ and in His glory that we attempt to accomplish any of these things.

We must be more like Christ.