It Certainly Is A Comfy Crutch
The self-help industry was worth $10.5 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach about $14 billion by 2025 (www.dealsonhealth.net). Self-help books sold 18.6 million volumes in 2019 (www.npd.com) and have continued to grow I am sure. Obviously, people are recognizing their need for change and seeking out ways to improve themselves. So let me ask you this, if people are so desperate to better themselves that they are willing to pour their money into the self-help industry, why are our churches so empty? And, if our churches are full, why are so many people pouring their money into the self-help industry in a desperate attempt to change their life for the better? These things do not add up.
Can you imagine what God could do with $14 billion dollars through local churches in our community? No, you couldn’t, because He would do more than we could ever ask or imagine. Think of how many lives would be changed. Think of how the community would be changed. Think of how the reputation of Jesus would be improved. Can you imagine if God’s Church was considered the best self-help option in the industry? I believe it was at one time. In fact, so many people were turning to God’s Church at one point in an attempt to live a better more satisfying life that it became a threat to the rulers of the nations. So what changed? More importantly, how do we get back there?
One of the biggest lies enslaving both believers and non-believers alike is the identity lie. We all embrace the chains it puts us in at some point. We say things like, “I can’t help it. That’s just the way God made me.” Or, “That’s just my personality.” The identity lie is an amazingly comfortable crutch for us. It convinces us that these parts of us are permanent and not our fault. It reminds us that our family has always been this way. It reminds us that we can’t help how God made us and convinces us that we don’t need to check scripture to make sure that we are right about that…we obviously know better because we are talking about ourselves. Who could possibly know us better than us right?
We are told that when we accept Christ as our Savior, we are a new creation. We are told that the old is gone once we become Christians. The thing that we are not often told, or we choose to ignore, is that we actually have to put forth some effort to make the old stay gone and keep the new creation at the forefront and in control. When we don’t put in the work, the old comes right back out. As the old reappears, we begin to think that maybe that is just who we are, and there is nothing we can do about it. It didn’t go away like it was supposed to, so maybe it is supposed to be part of this new creation we have become. If that is the case, then it is not necessary to work to get rid of it because we will never be able to get rid of it. It is “just the way God made” us. I told you that crutch was comfy.
Sometimes when the old reappears, we freak out and start scrambling to figure out why we are the way we are. Interestingly enough, most of us don’t turn to scripture for the answers instinctively. We instead run to the internet to take personality tests in a desperate attempt to understand ourselves. The test of choice in our society right now is the enneagram test. I’ve lost count of the number of people that have thrown a number in my face when trying to get me to understand them. I’m sorry, but I am not interested in the label you have accepted from the world to explain why you behave the way that you do. I am interested in discovering who God made you to be.
Have you ever taken one of those enneagram tests? They take a long time to complete and if you want to take the real test, you will have to pay. What is funny to me is that many of us have a hard time finding 10 minutes a day to read our Bibles, but we will take a 40 minute test on the internet to find out why we act the way we do. Then we'll spend another couple of hours reading about and researching the results. That is just crazy…and I am one of the people that has done it!
Have you seen those quizzes on social media that tell you which character from a book, movie, or tv show you are? I need one of those for Biblical figures. I bet there is one out there…a quiz that tells you which character from the Bible you are most like. Wouldn’t it be something if those were the types of tests we sought out when we face a crisis of identity instead of self-help books and personality tests? What if we could take that test and then spend hours reading through scripture to learn more about our character? What if while reading about our Biblical character in scripture we learned more about who God is and who God made us to be? What if we gained insight and understanding about this new creation we have become and collected the tools and weapons needed to demolish the old every time it tried to rear it’s ugly head in our life? Wouldn’t that be something?
I don’t know how to get back to the place where God’s Church is the first thing people turn to when looking for a way to live a better more satisfying life, but I have to believe it is possible. I have read the book of Acts, and I believe that God can do everything He did then again. The most interesting thing to me about the book of Acts is knowing that in that time, the people did not have Bibles. God’s Church grew and multiplied faster than ever to the point that it became considered a threat, all without each person having multiple Bibles in multiple translations in their homes. How? In those days, God’s people lived as children of God. They lived out their identity in Christ, and it was intoxicating for others. They lived as the ambassadors of Christ that they were. Their lives were a reflection of Christ, and the people around them couldn’t resist it.
Do you now how they became such irresistible reflections of Christ? They spent time with Him. The disciples had lived with Him for three years. They ate with Him. They traveled with Him. They prayed with Him. They fasted with Him. They talked to Him. They learned from Him. They listened to Him. They worked with Him. Jesus was a part of everything they did for a solid three years. They poured their time and resources into getting to know Him and learning from Him. They prioritized Him. This is what gave them the confidence to live as children of God. This is what formed and solidified their identity within them. The same is still true for us. I can’t begin to imagine what this world would look like if people put as much time, effort, and money into Jesus and His mission as they do the self-help industry, but I know it would look a lot better than it does now.