Comments on: The Miserable and Pessimistic Christian Life

By: charley

charley — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 00:30:53 +0000

Hey Guys,
I’ve been a Xian for over 30 yrs and in “fulltime” ministry for 24. I’m 53 years old and I’m a virgo (sorry, I couldn’t resist), but seriously, I’m having so much trouble in thinking that it seems more and more to me that I’m the one doing everything and Jesus or the Spirit never really show up to give me that resurrection power or fruit of the Spirit, etc. It seems like everything I do, I have to do myself and where is God. I’ve thought this for years, but always repressed it , but just recently as a result of my angry response to God’s sovereign workings in my family I’ve had to step back and say, God, where are you….I need you to help me live this life (not ministry, but abiding in Him) you’ve called me to. I now know that anger has been my God in the past, but I’ve repented, but still God has not shown up to empower me in the Xian life….

And, yes, like you, I’ve read a lot of Crabb books and know not to believe it totally, but I genuinely want to find Christ and the change that walking in the Spirit makes, but I’m getting no help from God on that.
It’s really making me wonder if this is all some kind of lie….

By: Chad

Chad — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 19:47:59 +0000

Good post, Mike, and one that needs to be heard given the abundance of pessimism and defeatism that surrounds us.

I tend to think the root cause of such an attitude is unbelief. Afterall, it’s easy to be pessimistic. Whereas to be hopeful and optimistic, you often need to have faith in God that he will turn a situation around.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 14:02:29 +0000

John:

Good question, the answer to which I think is multifaceted. The obvious one is that we live in a psychological society rather than a theological society – and this is sadly true in the church, too. We’ve been told that it takes psychology to really figure out what makes people tick and we are inclinded to believe it.

Another problem, as Machen preached long ago, is that Christians are pretty lazy intellectually. We would rather be told what to think than how to think.

Finally (for now anyway), most pastors – who in general have good minds as well as hearts – are not scholars. The insights and errors of psychology (along with other disciplines) have not been explained to congregations. Sadly, a lot of pastors buy into the psych-as-sanctifier model just like everyone else does.

I think Crabb may have come to the bottom of his own psychological barrel and we’re seeing the dregs and scrapings in his more recent writings. Now, if he would only jettison all the stupid stuff about psychology and focus on Scripture alone, eschewing his pessimistic nature . . .