“Contouring”

We must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ… (Ephesians 4:15).

I have just returned from an over-the-road trip to the middle of America. In Carroll, Iowa, I participated in the commissioning of a newly minted missionary. He was accepted by our Home Council in November — and on Sunday he was commissioned. Drew hopes to depart soon for Kenya.

Somewhere along I-35, south of the Minnesota border, I stumbled upon a country-western station on my radio. Country-western music makes me smile, sometimes. But an (apparently serious) advertisement between the songs made me laugh out loud.

A group of enterprising physicians, it turns out, are serving the Iowan public with “body contouring.” I had never heard of the technology! Some of the public in middle America, apparently, have become disatisfied with their middles. They are interested in enhancing their contour, perhaps, or reducing a bit of extra contour accumulated through the years. Some are interested in smoothing wrinkles and angularities. Others are interested in restoring their angles — a chin, lets say, that has drooped or duplicated over time. “Everyone can benefit from a bit of contouring,” the doctors reported earnestly. “Come on in for a visit.” They offered a free evaluation for radio listeners…if you mustered the nerve for it.

Right. Middle America has too much time on its hands.

I prefer the kind of contouring that I witnessed in Carroll. I met a group of sisters and brothers who are living for Jesus. I shared a meal with a young man on his way to Kenya. This fellow aims to give himself to a particularly angular contour: missionary obedience in a world badly in need of it. He aims to diminish himself and exalt the Lord he lives for. He intends to announce and live out the gospel of salvation and invite others into the same adventure. He hopes with his life to make disciples for Jesus. It is a challenging contour.

But our collective Christian “edge” has drooped a bit through the years, I am afraid. Why, some of the Christian public wonders if it remains appropriate to do this sort of thing at all — to tell the world about Jesus. It seems so strident and presumptuous, doesnt it? In much of Christian America we have accustomed ourselves to softer contours and a friendlier, flabbier theology. It has been many years since many of us have noticed the peculiar angularity of the Great Commission. “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Nothing droopy about that.

If the physicians on the radio had their way, maybe, Iowans would contract a “contour” like Tom Cruise. This would be tragic for middle America, and probably not so good for Hollywood either. But if we started to look like Jesus — now that would be something.

Imagine the sacrifice. Picture the love. Imagine the service, the righteousness, the humility, the grace. If we are growing into Christ, we are not growing flabby — no, indeed. We are called to grow in the contours of his extraordinary life, his wonderful gospel, his calling, his mission.