Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all……Oh how the self-help movement has invaded the church. Mind you we spin it. It isn’t self-help even though the church uses all of the same language and tricks. No, we call it what God wants for our life today or something. It doesn’t sound so self-absorbed that way but it is. We flip everything and make God all about us. Whatever dream or idea we have God is out there working to help us get it.
You may be thinking, Darin God has a plan for my life. Yes he does and he asks you to walk by faith believing that is true. That is very different than the belief that I have a dream and God is all about making sure it comes true. Why do I know that? Because it puts the focus of everything squarely on me.
I mean can you imagine Paul talking the way we do?
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:7-10
What saddens me the most is when this rubbish infiltrates Churches of Christ. I mean we were supposed to be the people of the Book. People who called Bible things by Bible names. People who knew and understood scripture. Did Churches of Christ abuse this idea? Sure but I don’t think that is a good reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Where did we get it? Not from scripture. We got it from psychology. The church took it and slapped some verses around it and called it biblical. The problem? Other than it is extremely destructive and doesn’t work? That is isn’t actually biblical? That it is built on a foundation not that man is fallen but that we would all be great and perfect if someone or something in our past didn’t harm us and so all we need to do is fix that whatever that bad was whether it be our parents or school or something else?
It takes away the need for Jesus in our lives. I’m talking about the crucified Jesus not the one lerking around trying to help us make our dreams come true. It also takes the focus away from the love of neighbor to the love of seeing my dreams come true. I don’t know how anyone goes into scripture and comes out with anything other than love God and love your neighbor. How did this become love God and love yourself and your dream?
Shouldn’t the church wake up? Have the numbers told us nothing? The more the church focuses on self-identity the more problems we have. The more divorce and broken homes. The more addictions. The more sin.
Don’t take my word for it though. Read the research into the self-help and self-esteem movement. This isn’t even Christian research. Find out what they are finding. Read books like the Narcissism Epidemic and return to the biblical idea of self-sacrifice and love for others as what the Christian faith is about. This isn’t just another option of how you do your Christian faith, it is destructive and false and not what a lost world needs.
