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Christianity has it’s fair share of odd and confusing language and concepts, and God knows I’ve got myself hung up on a few of them over the years. One such concept that’s resurfaced in conversations lately is the idea of accountability, and/or the relational action of holding a fellow Jesus follower accountable in their struggle against sin and temptation.
To be frank, I’ve had very little actual “accountability” in this sense over the years, and it’s been quite a drain upon me. From the other end as well, it certainly gets tiresome being the moral police for friends that you are charged with accountability. My experience with such practices has produced little fruit in my life, and as far as I can see, little in those I’ve attempted to hold accountable.
Before instantly labeling me as being soft on such matters, consider what the possibilities of the alternative could be. I do believe we are to help our Christian brothers and sisters steer clear of living a lifestyle of sin, but I struggle with the current context that the Church of the last 20 or so years has laid before us. In other words, is there more to Christian accountability.
Rethinking this concept has been aided by several conversations I’ve had over the years with my friend Steve, a college pastor in Texas. Steve has served as a mentor of sorts to me ever since our days of serving on staff together at a church here in KY. Some of the most instrumental conversations of my life have been with Steve, many of which have given me direction and spurred me on towards becoming fully who I am in Christ. Yet thinking back over these conversations, very little of these times have dealt with my own personal morality, but rather with how fully I am living – how alive I am. I cannot overstate the impact these times have had on me. The irony is that, once God (through Steve) has painted a picture of me being more alive and being more of who I truly am and can be in Christ, that vision has far out-shined my desire for sin and the things of this world.
In other words, I’ve walked away not with thoughts of “my sin is bad,” but “Jesus, this crazy, risky life You are calling me to is far better, and any sin in my life is only keeping me from enjoying that life to the very fullest.” This is my mind, is true Christian accountability, the spurring on to risk living fully in the reality of Christ. This is what we all need – desperately.
And so the question remains, now in my conversations with friends and now, with you, the reader:
Are you fully alive?
Because Jesus – and the life He’s calling us to – is far better.
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