Some of the most difficult people to like are religious people with religious fronts.
“Hallelujah, brother. God is good and I am blessed. Are you walking in his blessing today and everyday?”
It’s not that I can’t love this guy or even appreciate his sincerity on some level, it’s just that I can’t touch him. I can’t connect with the person who is behind those religious words and who is really like every other human. Deep inside we are all conflicted: both needy and fulfilled, happy and sad, faith-filled and fearful, victorious and defeated… human.
Unfortunately religion creates barriers between people because it is posturing, it is a face to wear and it’s not real.
Jesus spoke of his followers as being poor of spirit and those who know they need a doctor. Humans who are real can connect on a deep level with other human beings and that is the dynamic through which the Good News of the wonder of Jesus is can be deeply shared and communicated to others.
Amy Grant sings a song, Better than a Hallelujah, that expresses this well (excerpts here):
Beautiful the mess we are
The honest cries of breaking hearts
Are better than a Hallelujah…God loves a drunkards cry,
The soldiers plea not to let him die
Better than a Hallelujah sometimes…The woman holding on for life,
The dying man giving up the fight
Are better than a Hallelujah sometimes
The tears of shame for what’s been done,
The silence when the words won’t come
Are better than a Hallelujah sometimes.Beautiful the mess we are
The honest cries of breaking hearts
Are better than a Hallelujah…
May our communities be filled with something better than a hollow “hallelujah!” so that the love of Jesus can flow from one honest heart to the next in a world that deeply needs Him!