Last evening the Canadian skater Joannie Rochette competed in Vancouver’s Olympics, but the story behind her performance is what drove the viewer not to merely watch, but immerse themselves in this moment: her mother died 2 days before the routine.

It would have been tempting for the network to make a grand production of the tragedy by producing interviews with friends or a short story of her mother but they tastefully did not. She walked onto the ice, fighting back tears, and skated. Silence. No commentary from the announcers, just sweet tearful silence as the crowd dwelt in her strength and sorrow. At the end, one of the commentators attempted to speak through his tears.

I stepped back and reflected on 2 fronts last night, recognizing how both myself and Western culture have a need to improve upon reality by embellishing it, making everything shinier than it actually is when an occasional genuine moment would suffice. While Christ’s true body is not swayed, most of what people today call “the church” is awash with the deception. “But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden. But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.”

I will be the first to admit that I embellish. A bunch. Watching the movie Big Fish, I imagine (and hope) that my funeral will be similar. The story is about an aging man who always has to tell grand stories about his life, dismaying his son who just wishes he could know who his father really is. At the father’s funeral however, the son meets the people who lived through the adventures his father fabled about and realizes there was an element of truth to the stories. The son comes to appreciate that while he was trying to get to know his father, he never just loved the man for being a story teller, a “Big Fish in a little pond.”

I have been blessed with a wife and two daughters who know that I am a storyteller; I embellish and stretch sometimes. They know there is an element of truth when I tell them stories about punching sharks while scuba diving, but their enjoyment and laughter in these moments is that they know they will eventually learn that it wasn’t a Great White but a toothless nurse shark. This is merely my opinion, but I think that as long as long as someone really knows me, and that I know me, this is not a character defect- it is up front and out there, the caution signs are in the open and my family knows what they are walking into. Rochette’s performance Tuesday night reminds me however, that there probably is a much deeper story to be told and observed if I would just shut up sometimes and live silently- that I’m really not that big of a fish, that not everyone likes fish to begin with, and that some people do like fish and don’t need a lot of spices to cover up the taste. While embellished adventures of my life abound, I have found that when I share the tragic death of my father, the joy of a good marriage- the few deep unembellished life-changing events of my core- people are content and changed by that.

Sir Francis Bacon comments on man’s fallen state in his essay entitled “Of Truth”: “… men love lies, not when they bring pleasure as with poets, not to gain advantage as with the merchant: but for the lies sake… The mixture of a lie adds pleasure. (paraphrased)” It sadly has been my experience that quite a few men, including myself, live this way in many areas of life. They promote what they have bought into for years, the fear being that questioning the status quo they have surrounded themselves with may expose the reality that everything they have built upon was for naught. The wonderful thing about reading the works of Paul in the New Testament is that I can tell he had already questioned it all, and found that the Gospel made absolute sense to him.

So much of the core organization in today’s religious infrastructure (worship, giving, fellowship, specialized ministries) did not exist in Christ’s time or the early church’s, though I have heard it taught time and again (despite historical proof to the contrary) that it did exist as it is today. When the evidence is brought forth it is not discredited (because it cannot be), it is simply either ignored in order to avoid any attention, or the motives and means of it’s being brought forth are discredited in an attempt to quash it. As Bacon said, the mixture of a lie adds pleasure. Simply put, man’s core sin nature dictates today’s doctrines and preaches in its pulpits, much of it being deemed heresy up until 200 years ago.

Christ doesn’t need embellishing, but as members of Western culture we have been conditioned that we need to supersize him with extreme bibles, fresh anointings, and power principles; Churches teach that speaking in tongues is THE evidence of the baptism of the holy Spirit, blotting out the scripture “Be still and know that I am God”; We do not allow him to live silently and deeply in our souls because we seek a manifestation rush; The simple defintition of the word “Radical” (meaning at the root, or core)- as in “Radical Christian”- has been changed (it now means outspoken, bold and loud) to meet our need for lies.

I needed Rochette to skate last night, but more than that, this carp just needs to swim and be content in the simple waters of Christ.

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What if church leaders, instead of softening a message to keep one businessman happy so he would give a $10,000 check every month, taught, with passion and conviction, 100 everyday laymen how to live a passionate life for Christ so each would tithe according to his own salary?

If the 100 could only tithe $100 a month of a $1,000 a month (1/3 of the average US salary) paycheck, then the church would receive its $10,000.

The 100 would have 2400 man-hours a day, as opposed to 24 man-hours from the businessman.

The 100 can do more in less time, touch more people, and have a myriad of resources to give.

But the 100 are still limited in who they can influence, because they may not be able to influence the same people the businessman can.

Now, in this world, you can have both, so include the businessman. Teach him how to be passionate for Christ too. Now you have $20,000 every month, a group of men able to passionately teach, lead, and serve, and an ability to influence most, if not all, types of people for Christ.

What would you rather have? 1, 100, or 101?

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