"Jesus Saves ... Green Stamps"
In obvious bad taste, this cynical but funny line caught my expanding junior high world view back in the 70s. For me raised in the church, it was certainly irreverent.
Being saved was absolutely central to my faith. I learned about salvation from a very young age and it was something that religious people around me never questioned, in any detail whatsoever.
Mostly out of fear, unfortunately.
Modern Christianity’s version of salvation is a big event - releasing us from sin once and for all. Also a big production following a fiery sermon with dramatic and pleading music. And for an impressionable and conscientious young man, it all seemed epic! I experienced many, many altar calls in churches and camp meetings over the years, but unfortunately they didn’t seem to stick. The promises were plentiful but the payoffs were not.
Why? I did not know.
We were told to confess. I confessed. Told to repent. I repented. But in Romans 7:15 the Apostle Paul echoes an all-too-common frustration with believers everywhere: "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate."
And the nuts and bolts of trying harder to be good aside, I just didn't feel saved! My friends around me would share their testimonies, tales of pain, longing and moral failure - turned into victory! Were they exaggerating? They talked of a transcendent moment of change, the amazing feeling of being filled with the Spirit of the living God. When hearing the sermons and singing the songs, I felt good, but for me it certainly wasn't as advertised.
It still felt hollow.
And then came the distractions of everyday life - schooling, jobs, a wife and kids - a real time pressure cooker. I needed a release! Getting saved was a distant, cloudy memory. My present took all of my attention, as my faith wavered.
Back to church again and again, once a week or more, chasing a deeper feeling, or any feeling at all.
Oh yes my brother and my sister, I had "those backsliding blues", according to a hip Christian band. But the lyrics confused me. Backsliding from what? My sin? I thought Jesus took care of it once and for all. He sighed a great sigh on the cross and exclaimed with his last breath "It is finished", right?
It certainly didn't feel like it.
But as I've matured over the years in my faith and as an adult, salvation has taken on an expanded meaning. Yes we are saved from our sins (which simply means "missing the mark"), but mostly we're saved from ourselves, our mistakes in judgment, our insecure reactions aimed at people we love, and our self-centered pride.
It all started with the word being.
Fast-forward many years now, and I'm transformed! I was supposed to be saved, but now I understand being saved. That little word now speaks volumes to this more mature believer. Salvation wasn't ever simply a single event, it's a lifetime of events.
So what are my events? It's really quite simple. Everything (is spiritual) - a common theme in most of author Richard Rohr's books, especially in The Divine Dance. God shows up and speaks to us in a million ways and through everyone we touch, through our own cadence of time (even through Dave, my daughter's sweet and crazy Australian shepherd). The Trinity's presence occupies our life's pleasures and its pains (usually more in our pains).
Yes, my initial salvation was real, but that altar call was only the first of thousands of salvations - more and more transformative moments happened as I simply said YES in the moment.
Jesus really did finish it all. But the business of ongoing change is now a shared, pleasurable and cooperative dance. No more heart-wrecking guilt, fear and shame. Just peace - the one that really does pass all understanding.
I've been born again, again.
About the Author
Terry is a man in constant motion to explore new horizons. He has a thirst for new places and faces, and a deep love for the natural world - with a weakness for waterfalls and sunsets. All of this venturing out helps to both ground and inspire him, because it opens him up to people, with their vast, collective array of experiences, outlooks and responses.
He finds all of this fascinating and sees that it has encouraged the growth of something crucial in his Christian development: empathy and compassion toward his brothers and sisters on this planet.