Prepare To Be Assimilated

First of all, allow me to mention that my husband has exposed me to inordinately large quantities of Star Trek of late. Thus, the title of this post. However, I am not talking about the Borg, here. I do want to broach the subject of being assimilated into religious Christianity. What does that mean? Well, let's explore it together.

Imagine with me, if you will, that you are a newly born Jesus-lover. You are full of vim and vinegar, ready to take on the world. You are eager to share your new faith with everyone you know. You express your excitement to a fellow believer who has been on this journey quite some time. He smiles knowingly, pats you on the back and thinks to himself, "He'll simmer down a little before long."

You start attending weekly meetings with the local congregation. You express a desire to "witness" to friends but are told that you really need to be "taught" the correct way to go about sharing your faith. So, you join a "new converts" class and the assimilation begins. Your joy is effervescent but seemingly lost on the more experienced believers. Bit by bit you begin to take on their views and are taught the "rules" of being a Jesus-lover. Before long, you look back at the joyful new believer you once were and wonder where all that excitement went. Instead of recapturing it, you succumb to the assimilation and are convinced that "Resistance is Futile."

OK, maybe that sounds a little harsh or extreme. Perhaps your experience was not quite so earth-shattering. And, I know, enough with the Star Trek vernacular. However, I imagine that some part of my little scenario rings true to you. It does to me.

Let me begin my story by saying that I became a Jesus-lover at a very young age. At the age of 5 I began to take seriously my responsibility in the Great Commission. So, I began telling my friends about Jesus. In fact, the first soul I led to the Lord was in the back of a van on the way to a birthday party. I was so excited that I quickly told one of the adults, "I got [so-and-so] saved." Now, I in no way thought I was responsible for the salvation that took place; however, my inability to express the event in the correct terminology was quickly pointed out to me. As a result, my fervor was quashed. It took me a long time to recover from that.

My point is this, whether you are the experienced saint or the newly won sinner, don't lose your passion for Father. I believe in constructive instruction for new believers, but I also know that Papa takes care of the remodeling once the house is sold, if you catch my meaning. Our job is to build relationship with others and try to assist in bringing both parties to the table, but the contract is between God and His child. Too often, those of us who have been assimilated into the religious vein of Christianity lose sight of the wide-eyed innocence of faith in our Father.

Matthew 18:1-4 explains it thus:

¹At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" ² And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them ³ and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

That pretty much says it right there. We need to be humble - not puffed up with pride at our theological knowledge or our expansive understanding of doctrine, which if I might point out, we probably have much less wisdom than we like to think. If we are humble as children, Papa will do as He did for David and "restore to [us] the joy of [His] salvation" (Psalm 51:12). What a relief! We can be joyful again, whew!

It all boils down to this: Do not, under any circumstance, allow a seasoned saint or anyone else to rob you of the joy of His salvation. To go back to my original analogy - you can now disconnect yourself from the collective mentality and begin exploring this tremendous Father-centered relationship with the freedom and wonder of a child. Have I mentioned the copious amounts of Star Trek?

Live long and prosper - and be prepared to beam up!