Christian Napkins

I was in a big Christian bookstore last year during the holidays and I saw and amazing thing. There was a sign that read in big block letters, "Christian Napkins." I couldn't believe my eyes! What in the world is a Christian Napkin and how does it enter into the faith? Is it baptized as a young napkin and then grow up in the church or is it saved after saying the salvation prayer? Are you a really good Christian if you use them to wipe the crumbs from your mouth? It just seemed a little ironic to me.

Why do we have to label things as Christian or non-Christian? Now friends I do realize that the papergoods in question had little crosses on them and that’s what separated them from their counterparts, but what an absurd label. It makes me wonder why we segregate so much in this life. We have Christian music and secular music. We have private and parochial schools.

I listen to a lot of contemporary Christian music as well as a lot of secular alternative and hard rock music. Often times I see more of the Gospel in a ballad by Coldplay than I do in the words by Michael W. Smith. One throws in the word ‘god’ here and there and it becomes a ‘Christian song’ while the other may be about love and struggle and sacrificing your life for the one you care about… and it becomes the secular tune.

We run about to every item, every action, every activity and label it either Christian or Non-Christian. It is as if we have a big stamp and we slap down a giant red JESUS on everything that fits into the neat little category of 'Christian.' Then we go about separating the Jesus-stuff out from the other things and we make a nice little pile of Christian-things… We draw that line in the sand and tell people to chose which side they want to be on… the side with WOW pop worship music, Veggietales and Christian Napkins, or, the mountain of other stuff that doesn’t have the red stamp. It’s a difficult choice. Most of the stuff I like will be heaped on the ‘Non’ side.

But this raises a bigger question, what does the Christian Label mean to us these days? What does it mean to be Christian? Is someone a Christian if they belong to a church? Is someone a Christian if they are active in a ministry? Are they a Christian if they simply believe in Jesus? Do they need to know Him personally as Lord and Savior of their lives?

Friends, I believe in living life to the fullest. Carpe diem. Live everyday hardcore with Jesus. I do not follow Christ to be part of a group. I do not go to church to belong to happy smiling people. I do not go to feel better about myself. I do not go for the label, ‘I’m a good person… I am a Christian.’ In fact, I go for the opposite reason. I go because I am broken and need a medicine that only Jesus can give. I go to be transformed, to be made whole.

What if the church stopped the Grand Parade of Smiling Christians and instead found itself collapsing upon Him in its need? What would that do to us? And to the world around us? What if we stopped trying to hold it all together? What if we stopped medicating our inner pains with recreation and accomplishment and business? What if we ran and collapsed upon Jesus?

Perhaps we would find true shalom settling quietly into our souls. Not a sentimental, organ-induced ecstatic feeling. But a quiet knowledge of mercy. A true, slow peace.

Perhaps we could march forward as wounded healers, as beggars who have found bread, as peaceful sons and daughters. Perhaps our ministry wouldn’t flow only from the reservoirs of our broken psyches and desire to grasp apostolic success but from souls that know rest.

Perhaps this world could look at the church and be intrigued by the inexplicable peace they see there. Instead of looking at the church and finding forced smiles and nicely tucked-in shirts and short, glib answers to the pains of life, perhaps the world would find a community of people who have the peace of Jesus within them. Perhaps they’d see lived-out testimonies of how freeing it is to admit the pains and struggles of life and take them to Jesus.

God in the Flesh
Don Everts
p. 111-112

What if being a Christian wasn’t as simple as posting a sign, printing a cross or getting a red Jesus stamp? What if the name took on a deeper meaning? What if people stopped using the church as a social gathering and started using it as a place for social change? What if we reached for a thicker, meatier faith, not a religion but a relationship? What if Christianity was no longer a label for marketing books and napkins, but became mantra for passionate, energized people chasing after Jesus? What if?