Christianese

I truly believe that we as Christians have a major issue in speaking Christianese. If you don't know what Christianese is, let me break it down for you. It is the super non-specific, super bland inside language that many Christians use so that they don't have to go into detail about what they are talking about. Let me give an example. Say I, a Christian, felt like I didn't know what God's purpose is for my life. Someone fluent in Christianese would probably say something like, "Learn to listen," or, "Wait on Him." You might be wondering, what does that even mean? I couldn't tell you. Because, unfortunately, we as Christians struggle with application.

Today in one of my classes, a girl and I started talking on how so many Christians can give these nice to hear phrases and uplifting sentiments, but we struggle in giving any kind of practical application. I'm going to relate this back to me real quick so no one feels attacked. I struggle in hearing God's voice. Yes, I, a Christian, struggle to hear God's voice. I'm going to explain why. I read my Bible every day. I pray every day. But I have the issue of literal thinking. So when someone tells me to listen to the voice of God, I feel very troubled. How am I supposed to listen to something that isn't verbal? It really trips me up when a fellow Christian asks, "Well Isabella, have you been reading your Bible and praying?" No Sherlock. I've been sitting on my butt waiting for a divine angel to appear in my room and communicate everything that God has been saying. Obviously I've been praying and reading my Bible! The word struggle usually implies that I am trying and have not succeeded. It does not mean that I am doing absolutely nothing. But that's just me.

Now this is just one form of Christianese. There are plenty others that are unintentionally harmful. Let me run through them real quick. "Quiet Time," means time spent praying and reading the Bible. Whether you're a Christian or not, I wouldn't expect anyone to know what this means unless you are the one who indulges in these terms. Another one is "Let go and let God." What does that even mean? Sure it seems simple, but how do you actually let go and let God? How do you do that? This one particularly peeves me off. It's, "All things work for good." What kind of bologna is that?! That's not even true nor is it Biblical. But best believe Christians have used it before. You might be saying, "Okay Isabella, but what's the point in all of this?" Let me tell you. It puts believers and nonbelievers in a place that they can't grow. We're sitting here wondering why more people don't come to Christ as if we didn't just say, "God has a purpose for everything," when someone's friend just died. Obviously that's an example. But do you understand how insensitive that is? Best believe it's not what Jesus would've said. Jesus understood the importance of a time and a place. There is a time and a place for uplifting speech. There is a time and a place to grieve and feel sorrow. There is a time and a place where we shouldn't even be speaking. I think that we as Christians often get it wrong when trying to evangelize and lead people to Christ. We often just want to give the quick fix. We'd rather give these groundbreaking one liners when truthfully, we are supposed to be taking time with one another. It even says in the Bible that Jesus hung out with sinners. We can't actually think that meant He gave these crazy oneliners and then expected people to follow Him. He took time with people. He was patient with them.

Continuously, imagine the point of view of the believer as well. In a Christian community, should we not have close community and fellowship? If a believer is struggling with something that is fresh, please don't say, "Just trust in God." For goodness sake use your context skills. Someone else's struggle is not your time to try and fix it or have this great soliloquy about how you just have to trust and believe that the death of someone or the spiritual warfare is actually a super fun and cool experience. It's dismissive. It's bland and indirect, and it provides no room for healing and furthermore growth. How the heck is anyone supposed to heal if we aren't acknowledging that life is hard at times? We constantly tell ourselves that everything is peachy keen. Now what does this have to do with ?Christianese? Christianese is a quick fix that we try to use so that we don't have to spend time.

I often think about how many situations Jesus went through that we would've tried to put some Christianese on, if we were alive in that day. Think about Lazarus, Jesus and Mary. When Jesus came to see Lazarus, both He and Mary wept. Can you imagine if we said to that, "Just trust in God." Well we already know that Jesus is God, but can you imagine how that would land? "Yeah Mary, we know that Lazarus is dead but you just have to trust in God." How insensitive. Even Jesus, God Himself, wept. He knew that this was not the time for some antidotal speech. He could read the room and see that this was a deep and depressing situation. And this isn't to crap on that we should trust in God, we should. But there are some times when saying it would not benefit the situation. It's like giving a medicine for a separate sickness. For example, say you have Cancer, and instead of giving you the proper treatment, I give you some tylenol. Sure tylenol is very helpful in many circumstances, but it is not going to be helpful in this situation.

In conclusion, fellow Christians, stop using Christianese. Stop trying to give a quick fix to very real and spiritual issues. To be blunt, it makes us seem insincere and disingenuous. I truly think this shows the importance of studying how Jesus treated others. It's deeper than being nice to one another. It's deeper than having a smile on your face all the time. We as a community need to learn to linger with one another, and provide the most Christ-like response in all situations.