Treadmill Christianity
Titus 3:3-7
In 2001 we were about to have our first child and I decided that if I was going to be the dad that would play catch, and soccer in the yard then I needed to get into better shape. So I started going out to the local college and running. Every night Trista would put Trafton down and off I would go.
This went very well for the first 8 months and then one morning I woke up and had trouble putting my feet on the ground. I hobbled around that day and went to see a friend of mine who taught Weight training and kinesiology at the college. We looked at my shoes, and the way that I stretched before and after I ran. He said that he felt that all of the running I was doing on the pavement was affecting my knees and ankles. I could continue to run and wake up with pain or I could get an elliptical runner to cut down on joint stress.
Trista and I set out to look for this treadmill on steroids, found one that we liked and spent the next 4 hours putting it together. That night I hopped on my treadmill and the next morning I felt pretty good. The next night went as well but the third night I got busy doing something else and for the first time that year I missed my run.
Over the next few weeks instead of running every night I would make it 5 out of the 7, then only 4 times a week, then 3 then eventually it became a high priced clothes hanger. I just couldn’t get motivated to use this machine that would cause me to huff and puff and sweat but wouldn’t take me anywhere. Every night I ran I remained in the same spot, just trying not to be thrown off. The treadmill is a wicked machine that has many victories and no defeats!
I got to thinking about this during my week of seclusion, how I feel that this is a graphic picture of the lives many Christians lead. In nearly every aspect of their lives, they feel like they’re on a treadmill. They can never quite do enough or be quite good enough. And just when they think they are up to speed, someone turns up the machine, and they are playing catch-up again.
Fallout from the Treadmill
We are surrounded by the fallout from the treadmill of "works righteousness." You can see the spiritual exhaustion in some people’s faces. They constantly worry about going to hell. "Have I done enough?" "Will I have time for one last prayer before I die?" "Where do I stand on the curve?"
And even at the height of physically exhaustion, they dare not slow down or get off. So instead they seek to pay God off-through church attendance, through good deeds, and through nonstop working.
Every sermon they hear on commitment only turns up the speed of the machine, makes the course steeper, and makes them think they’ll collapse any second. They never feel restful in their relationship with God.
The fallout also strikes the emotional lives of these weary Christians. Their emotions carry them through a debilitating cycle of guilt, anger, depression, and low self-esteem. Inwardly they can be filled with resentment, rage, self-hate, and self-blame. They refuse to forgive themselves and indulge in self-punishment.
Perhaps the worst part of this whole process is that their lives become filled with garbage. But this garbage doesn’t just fill their lives. It seeps out like nuclear waste to contaminate those around. The sufferers package the garbage, put a bow on it, and give it to their children as a present. It eventually brings a putrid smell to marriages, families, and friendships.
Since they hate to be on the treadmill alone, they (often unknowingly) try to pull others on with them.
Not only is this treadmill a problem for Christians, it’s also a discouragement to those who are watching the performance.
Watching me on the treadmill certainly won’t make you desire to get on one as well. It’s not a pleasant sight with all of the sweating and huffing and puffing. In the same way there are so many in our communities who are seeking for something and they watch us struggle to be perfect. This is not an image that draws people to the Lord. In fact, it causes many to decide not to even try. We make being a Christian look so difficult and tiresome, why would anyone want to attempt it? Just watching us is a workout!
Stuck on the Treadmill
After writing the book Freedom From The Performance Trap back in 1988 David Seamands began receiving letters from some of these tired performers:
I have been a struggling Christian for the past thirteen years. My problem is that I am never at peace and am always trying to be good-that is, to be better. I am so afraid of making mistakes ....
I am a college student and a believer in Christ. Your article really hit home to me. I am always feeling that kind of anxiety, guilt, and condemnation. These feelings invade my day-to-day thought processes. I cannot perform a task, read a book, or practice my music without feeling I am being judged ....
I feel everything I do is not good enough for my Lord ....
It’s difficult for me to attend church anymore, because our minister stresses regular Bible reading. I want to read God’s Word; but whenever I read the Bible, I feel the Lord is "putting the whammy on me" for what I am doing and where I am going with my life ....
I have all kinds of unrealistic expectations. Also, I attempt impossible performances and try to get God’s approval by keeping a lot of legalistic rules. I thought I had to earn his love, and that caused me to almost take my life ....
I want to be used more effectively for the Lord, but feel so unworthy and useless. I am such a failure I can’t stand to live with myself ....
I am a missionary. God has used me to win souls. I know all the answers, all the Scriptures, and can quote the exact chapter and verse. But it is all in my head. The God I serve is never pleased with me and is certainly nothing like the gracious loving God I say I believe in-and tell others about. Why can’t I practice what I preach? I feel like a fake ....
I try hard to be loving, but I’m so critical and judgmental, so hard on my spouse and kids. The slightest failure on their part and I get angry and explode. Then I feel guilty and get depressed. My family is so loving and forgiving-but that only makes matters worse. It’s almost like a pattern that keeps repeating itself ....
It seems the harder I try, the harder I fall. When I get exhausted and quit trying at all, I really do feel condemned ....
I felt the need to read these to you tonight because all of us have felt similar sentiments. There are so many of us who affirm grace, but who don’t actually live in grace.
Barriers to Accepting Grace
Some have a difficult time accepting the grace of God because of various barriers.
Theological barriers
These are created when we have digested a steady diet of salvation by human effort, a meal that leaves us bloated but starving.
I heard a woman once tell about recurring dreams of God requiring her to tiptoe across a high wire that has been stretched across a wide, deep canyon. In the dream, Jesus was actually taunting her, trying to make her lose her concentration and fall off. Needless to say, her spiritual life was a disaster because she believed that her God was against her!
Another Christian said that she abhorred the idea of prayer because for her it was like being caned to the principal’s office back in junior high. It wasn’t likely to be a winning deal.
Trying to earn God’s approval by our performance is perhaps the oldest and most persistent heresy. I know so many who refuse the label of legalist but who continue to affirm by their actions that salvation comes from our performance rather than from Jesus’ performance.
Even though they know better intellectually, they emotionally imagine God grading on a curve. The grades might be based on obedience or devotional time or evangelistic results or doctrinal accuracy.
But however they’re measured, these people know they fall short. They live as though God were waiting for them to do a little more, be a little better, precision tune their doctrine. And they’re sure he winces as he watches.
Next there are Cultural barriers
These have made it difficult to accept God’s incredible message of grace. As Americans we’ve been schooled in the thinking of self reliance; you get what you need by your own individual effort.
You earn your pay, earn respect, and earn a promotion. In other cultures, an aged person would proudly announce at the center of the village that her children are caring for her in her old age. But in our society, many are ashamed to admit that their middle-aged children are having to help them out in their retirement years.
The atmosphere of self-reliance is also regularly swept by the winds of activism: "God helps those who help themselves." But this philosophy doesn’t mix well with the gospel story, where God helps those who can’t help themselves
Paul is lead to write in Romans 5:6-8 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die — but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Finally there are Hardnosed barriers
These cause many to choke on the pure, sparkling water of grace.
We were all born with basic emotional needs that should be met in families-needs like unconditional love, acceptance, and security. If these needs aren’t met, we can be doubtful that anyone, even God, would offer us such love and acceptance.
And, of course, because those needs haven’t been filled, many people are hungry for something that they aren’t sure exists. For some it’s because of physical or emotional abuse at home. For others it’s because their parents were too busy to make them feel secure. For years in Youth Ministry I heard students say, "My folks gave me everything I needed-everything but love."
For others grace comes hard because they were raised in a home that held up unattainable standards. Their parents could never be pleased. In some of these homes, affection was withheld as a means of punishment, or guilt was used as a means of control. In these families, the message that says "your behavior was not acceptable" was often translated "you are not acceptable."
David Seamands tells of a woman named Margaret who as an adult displayed outbursts of anger and depression that were ruining her marriage. When he began helping her, he found that she was being controlled by an internal voice from the past - the voice of her perfectionist mother who was never quite satisfied. And somehow this voice had become the displeased voice of God.
She recalled her first piano recital, and how she wanted to play perfectly so her mom would be happy. So she practiced until her fingers nearly fell off. When the recital came, she performed flawlessly. As she got up from the bench, her piano instructor grabbed her elbow and said, "Excellent, Margaret; you played it perfectly!" But when she took her place next to her mother, her mom leaned over and whispered, "Your slip was showing the whole time."
Now to her God was the Eternal Parent who kept whispering that her slip was showing.
Get off the Treadmill
Many people never realize or accept that they can get off of the treadmill. What can we do to help such people?
Unfortunately, our culture is so thoroughly penetrated by the therapeutic model that many think they’re forever tied to the past. Armed with a new vocabulary of words such as dysfunction, dependency, codependency, addiction, and denial they become victims of the past.
The good news that Christianity offers is that we can get off the treadmill. Through spiritual healing, and through a renewed understanding of God, we can be delivered from such deadly treadmill theology.
In Titus 3:3, Paul explains why we’ll never be able to play the treadmill game well enough: "At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another."
Because of sin, we can’t earn our salvation. Not just specific sins we commit, but SIN - the destructive, pervading power of evil that has captured every person and separated us from a Holy God.
Paul, a veteran of the "treadmill" understood all too well how far from God one can be while appearing to be very spiritual. Everyone, he tells us, has chosen to participate in the fallenness of our world, regardless of credentials or prior performance. But then he explains how this gap can be filled.
Not by jumping as far as we can. Not by tiptoeing across a high wire. The gap is filled by a bridge that God, out of his amazing grace, constructed through the sacrifice of his Son-a bridge in the shape of a cross.
Paul continues in Titus 3:4-7 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
The grace of God fills the pages of both testaments. It is the glue that holds the biblical story together. And that grace has been shown most clearly and powerfully through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are saved not because of our ability to stay on the treadmill but because of what God has done through Jesus. The status of his followers now is that of heirs.
What incredible news! If I die this week, I’ll spend eternity with God in heaven. I might be wrong concerning some details about worship or some minor doctrinal issues. But I will still be with God.
I might fall short of where I should be in reaching lost people for the Lord. But I’m still saved.
But this doesn’t deny that there’s a response to grace. Titus 2:11 says "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all"
We must respond with obedience, service, sacrifice, humbling ourselves before an almighty God, and good works, not to win God’s approval or to repay him, but to express our thanks to God for his grace and to trust him with the guidance of our lives. We grow in these matters because he loves us, accepts us, forgives us.
Collapse into Kind Arms
In 1793 William Carey, "the father of modern missions," left behind his life in England to go to India. There he invested his life in translating Scripture, organizing evangelistic teams, and teaching others. But at his request his gravestone reads simply:
WILLIAM CAREY
Born August 17th, 1761 Died June, 1834
A wretched, poor and helpless worm, On Thy kind arms I fall
Tonight if you are an exhausted Christians, if you’re weary of trying to earn your salvation, if you’re tired of worrying about being lost, then please tonight get off the treadmill. And don’t worry about falling. The kind arms of God are there to catch you!
Offer Invitation
