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I got a new Bible the other day.

I love it.

It’s a huge piece of work filled with maps, drawings, scholarly notes and study guides that make the intricacies of the Bible so much easier to absorb.

 I’m pleased that I got a new one because I’d worn out the old one.

It had worn me out more.

This being a Christian stuff is tough

For starters, it’s all about responsibility. Chiefly, the responsibilities of following God’s stated will and loving him and our fellow man.

No, he wasn’t talking about the wee-wee driven imposter love that seems to drive every layer of today’s culture.

He was talking about the real deal where you work, consciously, to uplift, nurture, encourage and care for those who strive to make their way through this crazy world.

Then there’s the other really tough one — following his commandments. 

Mind if we talk about it?

It’s not about rules — If you explore the Bible with a deeper eye, all those things that God commands us to do boil down to our best interests. It’s not about meeting God’s needs; it’s about meeting ours. 

Yep, the Bible is confusing — Read any trigonometry texts lately? Can you imagine picking up that one subject with lighthearted study? Getting your mind around the Bible — an infinitely more complex manuscript addressing heavenly authority, creation, time, people, the before and after of life, and anything else one can imagine — is enormously tougher. Like trig, you’ve got to study it to get it. 

 It’s a light and dark thing — A curiosity of nature is that darkness doesn’t exist. Darkness is just what’s left when there’s no light. Skeptical? Well, tonight when it gets dark, take out your flashlight. Time how long it takes for darkness to disappear when you turn it on. Christianity is not designed to suppress us into misery. It’s designed to turn us into a flashlight.

What works and doesn’t — One of my favorite hard things about Christianity is that try as I may, I can’t find it encouraging anything that’s not good for me. If it says don’t do something or do do something, in both cases, I’ve been hard pressed to find any falsehoods. I’ve tried, and remain grateful for God’s patience with my research. 

Spirituality vs. religiosity — Note a reliable truism about man running on his own script. Over time, we trip on our own shoelaces. One of the deadliest distractions from Christianity is the concealed exchange of sincere God-made spiritual dedications for man-made religiosity. All religions do not land in the same place. Christianity uniquely rejects mediocre engagement silently flavored by the things of man.

Reaching — They call it a leap of faith for a reason. Trying to get to God by thinking doesn’t work. That doesn’t mean you can’t think, just that it doesn’t stand alone. Christianity requires feeling, action, and faith invested in something we can’t see, touch, smell, or hear. We’re back to that God doesn’t advertise thing. The deceiver makes things — including the pretenses of science — much easier and attractive. Faith based on the empirical notion of something called the “big bang?”

Churches vs. Christian country clubs — If you want to make your church attractive, make it fun, entertaining, safe, and non-controversial. People like their bed and their churches to be soft, warm, and cozy. If you want to make your church a house of God, rely on Biblical sincerity over pleasantries; lock onto God’s call to love AND be responsible with matching enthusiasm; separate the wisdoms of discernment from the condemnations of judgmentalness; and work hard to teach devotion versus sooth man’s fickleness. 

Remember who is in charge — There are a lot of people mad at God. Why does he let children die of cancer? Why does he allow wars, violence, car wrecks, poverty, and other miseries? Here’s the deal. If you skipped the trig and read the Bible, you know that God is not controlling the world — for now. The force of darkness is large and in charge. He’s a salesman, God’s a savior.

We can’t have it both ways — Funny how we expect God to insulate us from bad stuff and at the same time grant us the power of personal choice. You can’t be in jail and attending a Broadway show in the same moment. We live on a planet where we get to do our own thing. That includes the power to choose a relationship with God or not.

Judgmentalness is not an option — God doesn’t rank sin. That means we don’t get to either. A difference between someone practicing sexual immorality and lying, cheating, stealing, profaning, condemning, and gossiping doesn’t exist on the path to Jesus.

It’s an uphill hike — We like things easy. Christianity is hard. So is everything else that is good. Take note that it’s easier to let a house rot than paint it; to be ignorant than study; to drink than to work out; to accept the choking nature of darkness than to be a flashlight. 

Yes, Christianity is hard.

Yet we only need look around and review our own life experiences to embrace the nagging reality that Plan B is even harder.

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Conserve [v. kuhn-surv] To use or manage wisely; preserve save...

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Carl Mumpower is a practicing psychologist and former member of Asheville City Council. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .