There Is No Try

Remember Yoda before he was completely defamed by CGI? He was wise, wasn't he? One of his best lines (perhaps THE best line) came in the heart of Luke's struggle to grasp The Force:

"Do or do not. There is no try."

This small motivational phrase gave Luke the gusto to lift his fallen X-Wing out from the swamps of Dagobah by simply, but profoundly, The Force. Truly inspirational. And the the junior higher witnessing such an event? Life changing, to say the least.

I seem to meet a lot of people who have "tried Christianity" and decided it wasn't for them. Many went through high school "trying" it and found it to be either 1) existentially dissatisfying or 2) intellectually incredible (meaning what that word is supposed to mean: not credible). These are good grounds to dismiss a worldview, but I'm not completely convinced these triers have grasped the claims of Jesus.

Because they were failed in those two areas, they become despondent and move to a noncommittal philosophical worldview that helps them make sense of some things in their life (self-view, identity, sexuality, etc). Some float through this non-commitment for some time.

I've noticed one thing with "trying out" Christianity for a season: it's impossible.

You see, you're allowed to try out religious Christianity or religion, but when it comes to Biblical, orthodox Christianity, it won't let you try it out. You're in or you're out. There is no try.

Since religion is all about accomplishing moral duty through performing laws, you can try that for a while and fail and then quit; but Jesus was looking for more than performance.

By a simple examination of the rhetorical content of God's askings in the Bible we can see that he's not asking for simple action points and obedience or pillars of behavior - He's asking for our lives. Nothing less.

How do you "try out" giving away your whole life? How do you "give a shot" at giving up everything (Your past, present and future, your dreams and your own mind)?

The people who try Christianity end up trying the cultural religious fluff that has been placed around it because they're too fearful to give everything to Christ. Indeed, this is a frightening ask of God.

And yet maybe in the failure of trying we are only able to see its own inherent weakness. How about we let Lewis finish it?

"Now we cannot...discover our failure to keep God's law except by trying our very hardest (and then failing). Unless we really try, whatever we say there will always be at the back of our minds the idea that if we try harder next time we shall succeed in being completely good. Thus, in one sense, the road back to God is a road of moral effort, of trying harder and harder. But in another sense it is not trying that is ever going to bring us home. All this trying leads up to the vital moment at which you turn to God and say, 'You must do this. I can't.'" 

            -C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

At the center of "accepting Christianity" is total surrender. At first, a seemingly weak action, but in the end it will be much more life-giving than trying to be good.