I don’t want to come across as critical of other Christians as they do their best to serve God. So, as I write this, it’s not in a cynical “this-is-wrong-for-everyone” kind of a tone. It’s in a “this-seems-not-ideal-to-me” vein. I’m not judging others as much as I’m figuring out what I should do and be…

So, I got an email this morning from Christianity Today, summarizing some new content that is available on their website. One of the headlines was “Winning Them With Kindness.” Right away, I reacted against that headline because there’s something about the phrase “winning them” or “winning souls” that sounds like our Christian lifestyle is some eBay auction where it’s all a sort of compulsive game to convince people to “trust Jesus”. Yuck! If I was not a Christian, I wouldn’t want to be treated like some deer-hoof lamp, or an old Coca-Cola poster that consumes my attention during the auction, but when it’s actually “won” it becomes totally uninteresting, so I move on to the next thing. That’s kind of how it seems like we view our role with pre-christians, and it seems awfully offensive in a way.

So, I began to read the article and found out really quickly that it is about how a christian couple has started a website, www.raoked.com, that helps people share ideas for performing random acts of kindness. They’ve kind of summerized the event of getting blessed by a Random Acts Of Kindness into this concise verb “RAOKed”. Like, “you’ve been raoked.” Sorta like “you’ve been saved.” Hmmm…

Again, I don’t want to throw over anyone who is answering a call from God, so I’m not saying that raoking is some bad idea, or just some placebo for real christian acts. But I am saying that, as for me and my body, I will choose to do un-random acts of kindness (uraoks) over raoks any day of the week.

I mean, it seems like an act of kindness is better if it’s wrapped in a warm relationship that is on purpose, not random. Doesn’t someone on the receiving-end of a uraok get the benefit of feeling cared-for by someone who knows them, cares for them and plans to serve them? To me, “random” means it’s out of the blue and sort of hit-and-run. I realize that scripture says “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them … ” But, it seems like the emphasis from this passage is to warn against the appearance of caring for people just to appear righteous. It’s not saying that kindness should be all be spontaneous and anonymous. It seems like there is a lot of good spiritual real estate between showing-off with kindness and doing some righteous ding-dong-ditch raoking. What about “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Seems like that’s not that random, really.

So, I’m thinking that raoking feels a little off, like that “winning them” thing. Too much about getting it done, and moving on. Not enough about taking time and allowing relationships and circumstances to motivate us to be kind to people.

Now, I’m going to go do some Random Act Of Snacking. RAOSing…that’s something I can get behind!

This is a participative blog entry. Please feel free to click on the “comments” link to add your own opinion to mine. My hope is that we can create a better sense of direction collectively than any of us can on our own!
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There seems to be a general dissatisfaction with the worship environments that young adults are finding themselves in lately. I sense that this is deeper than a lack of individual preferences being met. It seems to me that there is a disconnect that is distracting young adults from basking in the reality of God’s presence and power. It has the numbing, deadening effect of the Wicked Witch of the West’s poppies.

Let’s try to understand together what is going on? What is missing from the equation? What is in the way? Is this a spiritual thing or a spiritless thing?

Here’s the question…what needs to change within worship environments in order to engage young adults into the compelling, propelling, passion-stirring, world-renewing, action-motivating presence of God? I hope you feel comfortable to chime in. I welcome you to share your thoughtful ideas by clicking on the comments link in the green stripe below.