Thoughts on Wimpy Christianity

Wimpy Christianity

The modern view on Christianity is varied, yet all views have something in common. Church is about time, not content. Work, not reliance upon Christ.

Going to Church is often looked on as “clocking in” their time, so as to avoid Hell, and anything else that might hinder their daily lives. After all, if your conscience is bothering you, you cannot enjoy whatever it is you’re doing to the fullest. So, to clear their conscience, most people go to Church to get it emptied, so they can refill it in the upcoming week. I had one man tell me, “I go to church every once in a while. I’ve done my sacraments, I know the Lord’s Prayer and I’m ok.” He is certain that all is good with God.

However, this way of thinking is clearly work-based Salvation. You pay your way into Heaven.

This is Wimpy Christianity. Most professing “Christians” attempt to find the easiest way into Heaven, involving the least amount of work possible.  What I mean by that is that people would much rather do the work that “pays off now.” They’d much rather avoid the narrow way, which involves things such as patience, self-denial, putting away worldly things and even being willing to die for what you believe. This seems to ask far too much, and doesn’t really have any sort of feedback at the time it is done. Whereas, when you go to Church, suffer through a thirty minute to an hour long service and maybe pull out a few good works while you’re out, you get the feeling that you have done something to earn your way to Heaven. (Not to say going to Church is a bad thing. Far from it.)

You almost get a scared feeling. A good sort of pain. However, this pain is a worthless pain.

It is called Wimpy Christianity because it seeks another way to Heaven- another route to Salvation. The “easy way” to stay clear of Hell. However, there is only one way (John 14:6). And this way is not an easy way, and anyone who says otherwise clearly has forgotten that, to follow this way, one must “deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me [Christ]” (Luke 9:23). This is no mere dedication either. One must be willing to die for Christ (Matt. 10:39, Job 13:15). And that is something that causes Wimpy Christianity to jump back, gasp, and say “That is not for me!”

And sadly, Wimpy Christianity is most of the professing Church. After all, a “Life is about you!” “Find your better life!” path (which is quite wide) is much easier than any path which involves death, both to body and to self (which is very narrow (Matt. 7:14)).

It does strike me funny when I hear “Find your true life!” or something along those lines. “He who finds his life shall lose it” (Matt. 10:39). Wimpy Christianity does not consider eternal life; only that which is here now. So, in reality, one who chooses Wimpy Christianity is choosing to lose their life later, whereas those who choose the narrow way gain eternal life.  

An example of Wimpy Christianity is my brother Stephen. I had brought him downstairs and into the kitchen so I could finish making my cup of coffee. He was clearly in a bad mood, and waited for an opportunity to cry. And he found it. As I obtained my cup of coffee, he told me that he had to use the bathroom, and due to his size, he needed help with this (the “potty” is quite tall). So, I came with him into the bathroom and got him onto the “potty.” Once I lifted him off, I told him to put his pants on. Suddenly, his depraved, lazy nature kicked in, and the tears began. “I can’t!” he would say as he lifted his empty hands. However, knowing that he had the ability to put on his own pants, I handed him them and told him to put them on because he was a “big boy.” But no matter how easy the task was, he simply would not do it. This is the case with Wimpy Christianity. It (Wimpy Christianity) wants life and it wants help through trials, but when it sees the aid, it cries out as my brother did and says “I can’t do it! You help me?” And, as with the case of my little brother, one would think that we would automatically do that which saves us (from death, or shame for this matter). We desire the quickest way to do “good works”, forgetting that Christ did not take any sort of easy path. He was killed in a brutal fashion, so the least we can do is face our trials, or in the case of Stephen, put on the pants and continue onward.