Christianity Is Interesting

By Tyler Huff

I was thinking about a bit that Mark Lowry did back in the 90’s. If you don’t know who Mark Lowry is, I highly recommend you look him up! You won’t regret it and I’ll bet there’s at least one of his songs that you’ve heard before. The bit was about his favorite scripture, ”And it came to pass”. He goes on about how all the things in life will pass eventually, good and bad. But, he begins by telling the audience the one word he would use to describe his Christian experience: interesting.

Is the Christian experience joyful? Yes. Is it sad? Yes. Is it full of ups and downs? Yes. The Christian life is never any one of those single aspects all of the time, but it is every single one of the aspects at one time or another. We all have our ups and downs. After all, life is a rollercoaster. One minute you’re riding high, the next minute you’re flying through an underground tunnel at 95 mph.

Life, More Abundant

Jesus never told us that He’d give us an easy existence if we would just believe in Him. No, He told us that He’d give us life more abundantly. (John 10:10) We get a fuller life with Jesus, but nobody ever said it’d be easy. In fact, I’d argue much the opposite. I personally know plenty of people whom I would consider to be extremely strong in the faith who have had to deal with the worst of circumstances. Everything from COVID-19, to heart attacks, to sudden job loss, cancer, you name it. What happened with them? No matter the outcome, they still had faith in the Lord Jesus. I believe that’s what carried them through the hard times.

What is a more abundant life?

I’m glad you asked. A life that’s more abundant is a life overflowing with eventfulness, both good and bad. Did you get a big promotion? That’s an abundant life. Did you get a brand new car? That’s an abundant life. Did you just have your first baby or get married this year? That’s an abundant life. Did you just find out you or someone you love has stage 4 terminal cancer? That’s an abundant life. Did you just get pulled over for speeding? That’s an abundant life. Are you top of a mountain? Abundant life. Down in the valley? Abundant life.

Thank Him all the time!

Since God is the God of the highs and lows, we should thank Him unceasingly. Are you having a great time at a job you love? Thank Him. Are you having a terrible time at a job you hate? Thank Him. Thank Him even in the bad times because that’s a part of life, and there’s only one alternative to living life. We all know what that is.

This is one of my favorite subjects to ruminate on, if you will, because it’s also the one I struggle with the most. It’s hard for us humans to accept the fact that God is still there in the hard times. Oh, we’ll praise Him until the cows come home when we’re on the mountaintop, but when we’re down there in the valley? Not so much. What we have to realize is that the hard times come to teach us things. We only really ever learn in life from the bad times and the mistakes we make. I’m not saying that the only time you grow is during the bad times of course. The goal is to grow during all the seasons of life! However; we can’t do that if we’re too focused on wondering why He “let” something bad happen to someone good. It’s the whole ”Why Me?” situation. Well, (and I think you know where I’m going with this), why not you? What makes you too good to experience troubles in life? Nothing, that’s what.

We all go through troubles in life.

Life is all about how you respond to situations, not how you react to them. This is the same whether you’re a Christian who’s 87 and was saved at 8 or if you’re someone who doesn’t believe at all. The highs and lows come for us all. I know in my personal life, this particular portion can be the most difficult part for me. I tend to be more reactive than responsive. I try to work on it daily, but I’m human and things happen. None of us are perfect.

But you say, “Why is Christianity ‘Interesting’?”

The reason why Christianity is interesting is because it’s really the greatest social experiment of all time and God is the researcher. Think about it. Humanity is a huge social experiment designed and orchestrated by God, but Christianity went and flipped the script even further. Before Christ, faith in God was all about sometimes intense personal sacrifice and following too many laws to count. After Christ was crucified and resurrected, faith in God became about simply believing in Him as your savior. Jesus took the playbook and turned it into a paragraph.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. — John 3:16

And that’s literally the entire playbook now. Just believe in Christ wholeheartedly and you will be saved.

The bottom line is that Christians go through the same things non-Christians go through, but Christians have a hope for the future.

To any non-believers reading this now, what are you waiting for? You’ve seen that even Christians, those people that believe in Jesus and always sing about having ”joy unspeakable and full of glory” go through tough times as well. That’s what makes Christianity interesting.

We all have choices to make in life and I believe firmly that your religious belief can and should deeply influence how you respond to the hard times.

So for me, I agree with Mark Lowry. The Christian experience is not joyous, it’s not sad, it’s not easy, it’s not hard. Even though it has been all of those at some point, the Christian experience is interesting.