I’ve noticed a trend in my own faith journey that some of you may be able to relate to. We can fill our schedules with all kinds of religious activity. Prayer, Bible study, devotionals, small group meetings and the list goes on and on. We can check these items off the list and for a while, it feels like we’re doing a really good job at being a Christian.

But then somehow we’re reminded that this whole deal is supposed to be about a relationship with Christ, and that throws a wrench into our operation. We have to admit that in the midst of all our dutiful “Christian” activity, we can’t honestly say we have a relationship with Christ. Not to be cliche, but this is pretty much what it means to throw out the baby with the bath water.

Jesus’ words to some of the religious leaders of his day strike a little too close to home….

“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, ⁴⁰ yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40)

So how do we respond? It may be time to set aside some of the complexities and mechanisms behind our religion and get back to basics. When was the last time you had some solid one on one time with God? No agenda….no formula….no template for your prayers. Just you and him and the time to actually go deep. The thing about relationships is that they’re messy. It’s not easy to quantify how well we’re doing through that lens.  The performance oriented side of us can’t stand this messiness. But how sad it would be to get to the end of our lives and realize that we had a Christianity without Christ.