My faith needs a 'Restart' button

At church a couple weekends ago we looked at Luke 15. It's the story of the prodigal son and even for those who don't believe it's familiar. Our pastor began by saying that to truly understand all the layers and context we would have to wipe the slate clean and forget everything we thought we knew about it.

And that got me thinking.

How much of what I "know" about my faith has been taken from popular opinion? I listen to a fair amount of Christian music, read a fair amount of Christian literature, have more than a fair amount of Christian friends; so what percentage of the information I retain is coming from third-party sources? And seeing as how Christ has been dead for a couple thousand years and isn't available to meet me at Xtreme Bean for a chat, is it even possible to get counsel straight from the horse's mouth?


Sola scriptura is the belief that no interpretation of scripture is to be placed above scripture itself. It's considered one of the foundational ideals that the Reformation stands upon and while it by no means negates the validity or importance of theological critique and reflection, it holds scripture as the Be All, End All. Martin Luther said, "The true rule is this: God's Word shall establish articles of faith, and no one else, not even an angel can do so."

My mother is devout to the point of exasperation but she underestimates her own ability to break down what she reads in her Bible each night. As a result, she turns to Joyce Meyer, Charles Stanley, Gregory Dictow and Joel Osteen as conduits. During our weekly nosh sessions at Einstein's, she'll rarely quote scripture but usually has some nugget of wisdom from one of the above mentioned.

I'm a Brennan Manning fangirl and C.S. Lewis gives me a theological hard-on, so I have no room to talk when it comes down to the veneration of mere mortals. But here's where I'm finding pause lately:

Fundamentally it all comes down to Jesus, right? Any respected theologian or apologist of the faith is going to agree that the bare bones of belief is the Man Himself. All of the people admired for their wisdom are using Christ as a standard of measurement. He's what they strive for and all their messages and books and songs are an effort to relate how they've gotten closer to that goal.

I had a professor while in Bible college that often lamented how easy it was to make a Christ-follower into a Billy Graham-follower or a John MacArthur-follower. Rich Mullins said it saddened him that so many people knew all the words to his songs but couldn't recite much more than John 3:16. And I'm about as guilty as one can be of this. It wasn't until eight or nine months ago that I actually put much thought or time into my Bible reading but I had a 'Mere Christianity' or 'Ragamuffin Gospel' quote sitting in queue on the off chance that the situation called for it.

The thing is, Jesus didn't have anything other than the Tanakh to reference (well, and, of course Himself b/c He's God incarnate, but that's beside the point). No KLove, no podcasts, no 'Purpose Driven Life'. All the "filters" we have and inadvertently use when viewing the world around us weren't an issue for Him.

I think we're a well-meaning group for the most part but I know my own perspective can be unintentionally convoluted. I don't ask myself what Christ would do in a given situation generally but I will rifle through the mental notes I took while reading 'The Journey of Desire'. And while that isn't bad, per se, it's adding an unnecessary step between my heart and God's. And while it is better than asking, "Well, what would Jenna Jameson do if she were here?", what's the point in aspiring toward the standard of another human when said human himself is aspiring toward the standard of something greater?

Rather than shaking a finger at the sources, however, I've got to turn this inward. I want to discard all the influences that muddy my chances to Love as Jesus did, at least temporarily. I don't want my decision as to whether or not I spend a Saturday night at a bar in Old Town to be based on my church's stance. Or Charles Stanley's. Or Billy Graham's. I'm not saying I'll just use my own judgment (because we all know how that would turn out) but instead taking a good look at from whence my plumb line falls.

I don't honestly know what this will look like when practically applied to life but I want to take an earnest shot at trying to strip away all the unnecessary perspectives that've been added by well-intentioned followers. No church service? No Bible reading? Maybe just the Old Testament? No clue. But I'm hoping to have a better idea come 2010 because I intend to take this baby out for a test drive in January.

I hope I don't wind up running it into a ditch.