Don't get me wrong - it's not that drinking coffee can't be spiritual. After all, the Apostle Paul tells us that whether we eat, or drink, or whatever we do, we should do it to the glory of God. So, drinking coffee with a friend, done to the glory of God, can be a spiritual act of eternal significance.
But, it's also ok to just like some good coffee. It's ok to just like a book because it awoke some deep emotion in you, and you really don't know why. It's ok to have a conversation about sports over the dinner table.
When I was at DBU, there was a group of students on campus that my friends and I dubbed the "psycho-Calvinists." We didn't call them this because they were Calvinists. After all, my friends and I were all either already Calvinists ourselves or were on our ways there. I found out later that there were lots more budding Calvinists on campus than I ever knew, but many were closet-Calvinists because they didn't want to be associated with the psycho-Calvinists.
We called them this, because no matter where we were or what we were doing, all these people wanted to talk about was Calvinistic theology (usually double predestination, the multiple meanings of the love of God, or some other Calvinesque topic). We couldn't just sit at the lunch table and talk about English class, or the weather, or our love for Arminius (that's what we call a boring theological joke). Their forcing us to overspiritualize every topic of conversation made life very annoying, tedious, and frankly, unspiritual. And last time I checked, those are not enjoyable or profitable adjectives.
This is no call for thoughtlessness, just an apologetic for being able to enjoy the life God has given us. And Christians of all people should learn how to do that.
3 comments:
Agreed. The kids who always seemed like they were at church camp did the same thing.
I remember those guys. If I at first thought one of them was cute, I soon just thought they were weird. Such a waste. ;)
But seriously, you're right about this kind of activity not merely being annoying, but actually unspiritual because it only puffs up and profits no one.
It is a subtle error to attempt to make every experience identical with the highest experience--such is the fatal flaw of over-spiritualization.
Having a great cup of coffee is a spiritual experience, but it is not the highest spiritual experience. Just because Calvinism embraces the spiritual nature of every activity does not mean that every activity is equally spiritual in potency.
I also think new Calvinists tend to take comfort in the blossoming of their knowledge. It is easy to overspiritualize the relative value of the doctrines of grace, or other older, even mroe lofty theological doctrines. It sets the new Calvinist apart from his less-educated peers, and thereby becomes a source of self-conceit, or pride.
The seasoned Calvinist takes from Calvin his emphasis on true piety, or devotion to God's glory and divestiture of human pride in every aspect of life--beginning first in the recognition that our intellects are as much the result of God's gracious imposition as is our salvation from eternal damnation.
It reminds me of the Jars of Clay song "Light and Heat." Calvinism is both light and heat, because it draws upon the source of power, Almighty God. Psycho-Calvinism, as you have deemed it, is light without heat, for it seeks to take the light it has received into its own source of power, divorcing it from the source and only place of potency.
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