“What does it mean to live a Christian life?
A simple question that has been asked and answered in countless books and sermons. The faithful and those that would call them to task wrestle with it and set out with varying degrees of intentionality to live an answer…with words or by example.
The Bible informs our thinking, as does tradition, upbringing and popular culture. Individual believers form tribes who grasp onto the bits of Jesus, the disciples and other heroes and heroines of the faith in ways that track surprisingly (and conveniently) with personal thoughts and beliefs. Rule-lovers gravitate toward literal verses and commandments to guide their journeys. Pursuers of freedom embrace parables, poetry and the mysteries of the faith.
I find myself in the precarious position of valuing and embracing both the practical and the mystical elements of the faith. Like an artist, musician or writer, I am forced to learn to live in the tension between my desire for complete creative freedom and the very real constraints of paint, canvas and instruments that I cannot always bend to suit the whims of my imagination.
In a piece printed in The Christian Register in 1948, Albert Einstein ruminates on the relationship between religion and science. Writing about “religious” living he states:
“…it is no easy task to determine clearly what is desirable and what
should be eschewed, just as we find it difficult to decide what exactly it is
that makes good painting or good music. It is something that may be felt
intuitively more easily than rationally comprehended. Likewise, the great moral
teachers of humanity were, in a way, artistic geniuses in the art of living.”
Artistic geniuses in the art of living. What a compelling snapshot living faith. And yet, how infrequently I’ve encountered men and women who claim faith that I would characterize in this way.
How about you? Besides Jesus (a penultimate model), have you met any geniuses in the art of living? What is it about them that would make you describe them as such?
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