Sunday, September 19, 2010

Wrestling Passively

It has been a long time since I watched WWE RAW on TV, but it is quite popular.

When I was living at home with my parents in the last  millennium, I watched wrestling on Saturday afternoons. It looked real, but the impact of bloody faces loses something on a black & white TV. And, like today, the viewer must decide if it is real or 'staged' for show.

Imagine this. A tag-team enters with great pomp. Meet the 'good guys'. The crowd goes wild! Excitement! Anticipation! An announcer directs the audiences' attention to a duo dressed in black tights entering from stage left. Deafening boos. These 'bad guys' have no chance. The expectation of the slaughter has the crowd at a fever pitch.

In the ring each wrestler glares through steely eyes at the doomed opponents. Faces contorted to produce fear in the foe. Muscles flexed to create awe in the soon-to-be victims. Accusing fingers are pointed and shaken indicating intent. Verbal challenges explode from mouths. 

Meanwhile the crowd chants for their heroes, boo the sinister villains, and cheer every expression of the gallant. 

When you think the warriors are ready to jump over the top rope and clobber each other, all the wrestlers climb down from the ring. They wave at the crowd as they enter the locker rooms. Its over. Everyone goes home.

Ridiculous? Absolutely. 

But this is how some so-called Christians 'wrestle' -- passively.  They attend services. They distort or sadden their countenance. The glare at Satan. Spiritual intent is flashed. The devil is verbally challenged. Everyone gets excited. Then the service is over. They wave at their friends or the preacher, and then go home.

Passive Christians are unprepared for the real world with the real enemy. On Sept 8, a lion trainer was mauled by a lion. Was he being passive with the male lion? Passive Christians will too be mauled by the 'roaring lion'. Was the apostle Paul stoned for being passive? 

Are we ready to wrestle the real enemy that will devour / eat us? Or is this just 'staged' for show?

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