Cookie Cutter Christian

In this world, there are many religions, as there are many fads, fashions, and fancies. Some may operate quite independently. They are ships without destinations, explorers without compasses.

Coming up with a new religion is not difficult and is virtually an everyday occurrence. In any given town you can find ‘churches’ that range from preaching/teaching law to tickling ears...whatever your religion of choice is for that day.

God doesn’t make cookie cutter Christians. If He had wanted us to all look and act alike, He would have given us a set of hard rules to follow, we’d have a uniform or dress code, and be programmed like robots to look and talk like we all came from the same mold. Aren’t you glad God loves variety? How boring and dull it would be otherwise, if we all looked the same, talked the same and even walked the same. And how ineffective we would be. We are different so that we can reach different people. The world is made up of great varieties, and we need Christians who can relate to all of them. I can minister to abused women because I was one and I can testify of the peace that reaches far beyond and goes deeper than anything one can imagine because I’ve felt it deep down in my soul. I can relate to divorced single mothers because I was/am one and can testify how God can meet all your needs even if He has to do it supernaturally. I can relate to how it feels to be rejected, kicked to the curb, unwanted and unloved. I can minister to women in similar situations as mine because I talk their language.. been there, done that. And the same is true for you. You can reach others like you because we relate best to people who’ve walked the same roads we have in our shoes.

Can a non-traditional woman (going against the norm, against the grain), walking outside the box kinda woman be a godly woman? You betta know it! I is one! *smile* It has nothing to do with her role in this play, on this stage called life. It’s rather controlled by her heart attitude. We all know God is a ‘heart’ God, right! Does she have a heart for God? Does she seek to please Him only and know Him...really know Him? Does she love God’s people the way He does?

You show me that woman, and I’ll show you a woman whose effective for God. She may be as traditional as the day is long, or she may be radically different (me \O ) , with a most unusual lifestyle. I know women in both categories who role model for me what a Christian woman should be.

God doesn’t make cookie cutter Christians. I know cause I ain’t one. He’s far more creative than that. Let us then stop trying to turn everyone out of the same mold, and allow God to shape each of us according to His desires. Aren’t you glad when He made me, He broke the mold? *smile*

Have you ever had a preconceived idea of what someone was like? Have you ever talked to someone on the phone and had it all figured out what they looked like and when you met them face to face, they were nothing like you had them figured? I remember listening to Paul Harvey every day, sometimes twice a day on the radio and listening to his strong deep voice, I had him pictured as a giant of a man. But after seeing him on tv (I believe) I was shocked to see he was actually a small man.

I suppose 2000 years ago, people also had preconceived ideas of what the Messiah would look like, surely they had no idea what all He would be capable of. I’m sure no one imagined the men who Jesus selected as His disciples would ever be picked. What? An ordinary fisherman, an evil tax collector? Or that Jesus would be capable of making the blind see and the lame walk and certainly didn’t imagine Him raising the dead. Who is this? Isn’t this Jesus, the son of the carpenter? Why, I’ve known that boy all my life! Who does He think He is?

Not even the scribes or Pharisees had envisioned this. Yet, Jesus had come, not to fulfill people’s expectations but to show us who God really was and who we could become because of Him.

Matthew 11.11 “I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” (NIV Bible)

We often have a preconceived idea of what a follower of Jesus should look like – well dressed, nicely mannered, friendly and carries a Bible everywhere they go. However, when I read through scriptures, I see many of God’s followers who fall short of these preconceived expectations. To be honest, God does not care about all of that, He has never been concerned with our outer look, instead He looks at our heart. Our hearts don’t reflect who is the least or the greatest, just who is filled with His love.

God is so diverse, that He created us all in His image but yet different. He created each of us in a unique way to fulfill different goals. I suppose you could say it’s like baking Christmas cookies. We start out the same (in God’s image) but then He applies His own spiritual frosting and creates in each of us a unique sweetness. It doesn’t matter if we are rich, poor, powerful, imprisoned, male, female, young or old… God sees us for who we are and He has a very specific purpose for each one of us.

Be the unique child of God that He designed you to be and leave the cookie cutters to the bakers! Don’t be a cookie cutter Christian.

Over the years, I have grown disenchanted with the cookie cutter Christianity approach. I tried hard to fit the mold when I was a younger Christian. My semi-neurotic approval seeking desire to please others fed into my hard working attempts at conforming to a standard of what a “good” Christian looks like, talks like, acts like, and thinks like. Then I start realizing that different Christian circles have different expectations or standards or slightly different cookie cutter shapes. And I tried to conform to those standards too, all of them. And failed.

One of the most prevalent Christian spiritual discipline that was drilled into me was the daily “quiet time” where you spend a certain amount of time every day, preferably the morning, to read or study your Bible and pray. How fervent and regular you are in keeping your “quiet time” is often a ‘meter’ of how close you are to God. Throughout my whole Christian life, I have struggled with keeping this daily morning routine. And I constantly felt guilty about it. I tried almost everything, from using devotional books to reciting set prayers, to cutting down the time, to trying different time slots, etc. And I failed. I have always kept it a secret that I struggled with this discipline, especially as I rose in the ranks as a spiritual “leader” among my peers. And, now, I’m a minister. Yet, I have deep biblical knowledge and a deep passionate commitment to Christ. The daily quiet time was definitely not a source of that growth. I grew more from short, intense periods of critical studies on the Bible and reading/researching books and now from the vast supply of knowledge called the internet. I grew from learning from others, in reading and hearing sermons, in the church and on the internet. I grew from bursts of intensive prayer times where I poured my guts out to God, even arguing and yes bartering with Him and then there are those quiet times where I just sit in His presence without saying one word. In recent years, I have come to abandon my guilt feelings of not having a regular “quiet time” and embrace the fact that this is how God has wired me, and this is how I relate spiritually to God.

Larry Osborne (A Contrarian’s Guide) attacks the notion of cookie cutter spirituality as a fallout of religion that “places a major emphasis on rules and rituals that are supposed to either manipulate God or earn His favor.” Religion emphasizes a one-size-fits-all approach. Whereas relationships are different and can never be one-size-fits-all.

But if we actually take the relationship paradigm seriously, we would realize that no two relationships are the same because no two persons are the same. Even when two sons or daughters are relating to the same father or mother, their relationships will still differ based on their different personalities. As a mother of four, I can attest to that fact. God as a loving Father deals with His children one on one according to their own unique personalities.

But the reality is that so much of Christianity only pay lip-service to that relationship metaphor and serve up huge doses of rules, disciplines and practices, dos and dont’s and don’t forget dogmas in order to cut Christians into the same mold. As Osborne says, “our one-size-fits-all discipleship and spirituality recipes … are mere religion in the guise of relationship.”

Oh beloved, don’t be a cookie cutter Christian! Dare to step outta the mold someone has formed you from and be who God has made you to be...you...different, (maybe a little radical \O ) but lovable you.

In His love,

Elizabeth