My Medicine Cabinet Jesus

I’m pretty sure all of us have been asked what kind of Jesus we worship. Do we worship a “Cardboard Cutout Jesus?” One that isn’t active in our daily lives that we recite the same old tired prayers to at church, before meals, and at night? “Now I lay me down to sleep…” (which is just a morbid prayer for kids to say, but that’s another issue). Do we worship a “Holiday Jesus” that only comes twice a year for Christmas and Easter, but is never around for the rest of the year? Do we worship a “Vending Machine Jesus?” We ask Jesus for things when we want them, and try to use our good works and promises as payment.I think I’ve worshiped all of these at one point or another, but I think more than anything I worship a “Medicine Cabinet Jesus.”

I came to realize this the other day when I was checking my email. I have two email accounts that I check on a regular basis: one for personal emails (business emails and such are forwarded to that one as well) and the other for sites such as Myspace, Facebook, and Xanga to send notifications. I saw in my inbox that someone left me a comment on my “Worth It” Xanga entry (which is the blog post before this one for those who want to read it). One part of the comment stood out at me:

Why do you think we turn to God because we are weak? It is BECAUSE we are weak that we turn to him, we are insecure and longing for support no matter how disillusioned it is. When we are strong and self sustained we turn from God, because we are rightfully happy with ourselves. Faith is a stimulant, an addiction that we use to cope with the difficulties of life. Like any addiction, faith has the potential to ruin one’s life if it is misused.

I’m pretty sure all of us have done this at one point or another. When things are going well, we just live our lives as we want. However, as soon as something goes wrong we are on our knees praying. We use God like we would cold medicine. You don’t take it everyday, just when you start to feel sick (or in my case, when you are completely miserable and desperate). It’s like God is just a bottle of pills in our medicine cabinet that we take out when something is wrong, but we don’t touch it when things are good.

I can be especially stubborn with both my relationship with Christ and taking medicine. I usually wait until my throat is too sore to swallow, my sinuses are clogged, and my head is throbbing before I even look to see if there is anything in the medicine cabinet to relieve the pain. Often, I find that when things are bad, I try to handle things on my own. I don’t drop to my knees and pray until I feel completely overwhelmed.

That’s not how it is supposed to be. I wonder how things would be if I didn’t treat my relationship with God like a bottle of pills. What if no matter if I had a good day or a bad day I opened up my heart to God and worshiped Him every night? Maybe things would be different.

I still think I would be worshiping a “Medicine Cabinet Jesus,” but something would be different. Instead of a bottle of cold pills, maybe He will be a multi-vitamin. Part of my everyday life and someone I turn to when things are good or bad.

“Blessed be Your Name
when the sun’s shining down on me
when the world’s all that it should be
Blessed be Your Name.

Blessed be Your Name
on the road marked with suffering
though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your Name”