Why I don't want to "do" the God thing

As Memorial Day weekend (or almost any three day weekend) approached last month, I was inevitably asked by at least one person that I didn't really know whether or not I had any big plans for the weekend. Since I lack both the money and the desire to go spend the weekend up at lake Chelan half the residents of the State of Washington, I told them that outside of going to mass on Sunday and spending some time with my family that I was pretty much free. This is apparently the secret code phrase for "I am a socially inept religious nut job who must be responded to in some way and then avoided at all costs." The usual response from someone who doesn't really know what to say to the fact that you have planned ahead to go to church is a polite "oh, that sounds very relaxing" coupled with a fake and slightly panicked smile as they look around for the nearest emergency exit. Some of the slightly more serious disciples of atheistic relativism like to say things like "Oh, I don't really do the God thing" but these usually get a suddenly sheepish look about them, as if they know they really should but the terrible inconvenience it has on their weekend plans is just too much to be overcome. The kind of look that says, "I would never tell my mother, but just between you and me..." The last time I heard someone say "I don't really do the God thing" it got me thinking and I decided that I don’t do it either. When I think of someone doing the God thing it all sounds very external. It is kind of like saying “I don’t shop at Safeway” or “I only wear red shirts.” It has very little to do with who we are, only our periodic external actions. People who do the God thing put on their Christian hat on Sunday (or maybe it is more of a suit and tie vs. a hat) and then on Monday morning they put away the Christian hat and put on the work hat. There is a different hat for every occasion in their lives, and the God hat is only one of them. While this is not precisely an evil thing, it is not really a good thing either. The first commandment tells us that we shall have no other god’s before our God. When we just do the God thing and treat him like just one more option among many, like picking out which shirt to wear or what shoes best match our mood on any given morning. God doesn’t want to be just another option; in fact He isn’t really an option at all. He is something else entirely. Rather than thinking about it in terms of doing the God thing, we should look at it as all-encompassing lifelong commitment. We need to be like one of those sports fans who never stops thinking about their sport (I will pick on football). You know the kind I am talking about. The kind of fan who put the fan in the word fanatic. They eat, sleep and breathe football. You see them in stands of a Packers game in the midst of the snow and the sleet with their shirts off, shaking their overly large green and yellow painted bellies. They are constantly keeping an eye on their favorite team, no matter what. They never miss a game, and even in the off season they are talking about potential trades and match-ups. Football is not just something they do; it permeates the very fiber of their being. They “sweat green and blue.” They function day to day as normal individuals, but at the drop of a hat or a partially heard conversation they are ready to talk or argue football with just about anyone. This is how we need to live our lives for Christ. We can’t just do the God thing, we need to live the God life and we need to do so with all the terrifying enthusiasm of a rabid NFL fan.