The other day I had Youtube playing in the background and it selected this song for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwgWbIOt0ko. I highly recommend checking it out, especially starting at the 2:29min mark because the joy of the band and audience amazed me. Even if I was part of a different religion, even if I didn’t believe in God, I think my reaction would be similar. It’s just… beautiful. It’s pure. It’s… what Christianity is supposed to look like. The faith of these people and the desire to worship brought them together into a state of perfect harmony. For this moment, everyone there was united in joy. How can you see this and not be inspired? How can you not want to be part of something that’s so uniting and joyful? Christianity has its struggles like every human organization, but wherever you have people, you’re going to have ego, competition, and quests for power, but how can we as a culture be so against something that can bring so much joy?
Please know this isn’t me trying to convert people, but seeing this video reminded me that having faith in Jesus, when it’s done right, is… beautiful. My wish for the world is that it would stop wanting to hate Christianity, and religion as a whole, because faith can be incredibly beautiful, especially in a world shrouded in darkness. In Quebec they’re trying to make a rule against religious symbols. Maybe instead of fighting against religions, we should try to see what we can learn from them. For instance, when I was in the second year of my undergrad I took a class on Engaged Buddhism and it helped me understand my own faith more. In fact, it helped me more than my own church. The core belief in Buddhism, “Attachment is suffering,” is a brilliant concept. In Christianity we often blame God for bad things happening, but we only suffer because we have attachments, and a lot of human suffering is from being attached to the wrong things or being too attached to superficial things like vanity. That being said, I’d rather have some suffering and have love than not have love in my life. Either way, I wouldn’t have grown in my own faith and understanding if I didn’t first learn this Buddhist concept. Wise people don’t shut out knowledge; they learn and adapt.
Today’s video makes me proud to be a Christian, and I want to thank everyone who brings light into the world like the band and audience in this video. It’s refreshing to have something so beautiful be shown because it seems that much of the world hates Christianity, and in some cases they have good reason. Here’s a few general rules we should remember: If someone preaches the message of God and lives in a house that’s worth 2.5 million dollars, they’ve been misled (Jimmy Swaggart). If the person claims to have healing powers, but then says you need to give him money before he’ll heal you, he’s not from God (Benny Hinn). If any preacher is obsessed with preaching against homosexuality, they’re likely a homosexual (Ted Haggard). If a country says they’re Christian, yet are known for always being at war with someone, they’re not following the teachings of Jesus. It really is amazing how a religion started with a single person preaching love and healing a few people, who ended up willingly dying for his claims, and then for the next three hundred years anyone who believed in Him became the target of the Romans who potentially fed them to the lions for sport sparked what has become the worldwide phenomena we know today as Christianity. In its genesis, Christianity was all about helping those in need and it somehow got infected by the seduction of power and money, but fortunately leaders like Desmond Tutu and Shane Claiborne demonstrate the original message of love still exists. As proven over the last two thousand years, no matter how much corruption exists, the original message of love will prevail.
This week, may the Easter spirit, which is a spirit of joy and peace, come alive in you.
Rev. Chad David, ChadDavid.ca, Learning to love dumb people