Let’s face it, in all of our lives there are things we may do that are not the healthiest for us. It doesn’t mean everything outside of attending church, reading the Bible, praying and listening to Christian music is a sin. Yet in unhealthy churches, the focus is taken off of God and is placed upon ourselves- what we do or do not do. The more unhealthy the church, the more the focus is placed on what we do. It creates what is termed the performance trap.
A person in this situation becomes so focused upon what they do or do not do that they slowly shut off God’s influence in their life. Instead of listening to the Holy Spirit, they become focused on a list of rules and being sure to be able to check off all the do’s and don’ts they believe are required of them. There is a great futility in this over-focus upon themselves as the person finds that, no matter how hard they try, they keep falling short of the goal.
This, in turn, causes them to doubt their walk with God, if God even cares for them and often causes them to loathe themselves. So they determine to try harder. As it is with human nature, they inevitably fall short again and each turn of the cycle pulls the person deeper and deeper into the clutches of the unhealthy church. Their view of God becomes more distorted and many times he is seen as a harsh taskmaster, sometimes anxiously awaiting their failures so he can inflict some form of punishment or leave them behind. The sermons they hear help to enforce all of these things and keep the person in its grips, because we all know that there is no hope outside the church doors (or so we thought).
An over-focus on anything is not good. I am readily reminded of a time in my life in the 90s when I underwent a battery of tests on my heart. I had an EKG, stress test with echo cardiogram, 24 hour holter monitor and then the month long monitoring. Outside of showering, I had to wear a monitor 24/7 and if I were to experience a change in my heartbeat, I had to press a button and also record times and what happened. I had to then regularly call and transmit what the monitor had recorded. It wasn’t difficult and the monitor wasn’t too bulky…..but the constant over-focus on what my heart was doing was stressful enough that it caused me to have my first panic attack. In all the other times my heart did “flip flops,” it never caused that, but an over-focus on my heart brought about an unwelcome and unpleasant panic attack.
The New Testament does not tell us to focus on ourselves and did not give us a checklist of things to do and not do in order to be right with or accepted by God. Yes, there are things in everyone’s life that may not be good or healthy. Yet an over-focus on ourselves is not the answer. Jesus didn’t die for us to have another list of rules or to think that by following rules we can live healthy and good lives.
He wants us to have a relationship with him. And in that relationship, in learning to walk with God’s Spirit, God is more than able to show us anything in our lives that is not healthy for us. As our walk with God develops and our love for him grows, change will be a natural result of this. This change does not just consist of letting go of things that are not good, but also includes instilling into us things such as love, gentleness, and long-suffering. It is a heart change- not an outward change brought upon by reading and checking off a list of things we have been told are needful or sinful.
When a person does things from their heart, they are real and these things show who a person really is. It isn’t just going through the motions. It isn’t about pleasing a pastor or church group. It isn’t about looking the part while our insides are torn up. It’s about our personal relationship with God and his writing upon our hearts.
All too often in an unhealthy church, people come to see God as having a list of demands due to the harmful teachings thrown at them. In these churches, do people get a real glimpse of God or his grace? Did their lives simply become about all the things they needed to change and were told were displeasing to him? This is certainly not the good news of Jesus Christ. It is not the gospel; it is not what Jesus came to do. It has nothing to do with a relationship with God.
Think about who in the New Testament writings was shown to have a list of rules to follow. So important were these rules that when a person was healed on the Sabbath, instead of rejoicing that someone was made whole, they became angry because a rule was broken. They were so blinded that they could not see the love that caused the healing and instead chose to hate and sought to kill Jesus because he broke their rules. Rule following like this causes people to be like the Pharisees. Blind. Self-important. Hypocrites. They may appear good from the outside, but the inside is not.
If anyone reading is still caught up in the performance trap, it is my hope and desire that you will break free from those chains and develop your one on one relationship with God. There is hope outside of those churches that lay heavy burdens upon people!
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