When Cookie-Cutter Christianity Just Doesn't Cut It

Written by Sam Guernsey, Edited by Sam Boggs

(Read 1 Cor 12:1-14)

Growing up, Christianity tended to look a certain way. I grew up in a small community where there always seemed to be unspoken rules. Everyone in my church adopted physical hallmarks which separated them into strict groups. Girls wore dresses or skirts; boys wore slacks and ties. Girls had long hair; boys had short hair. As I got older, I encountered more and more people who strictly lived by these rules, along with many others, which further confined them into rigid molds. They all started to look the same. They had different faces, but I could still spot their cookie-cutter molds a mile away. I grew to hate the molds and all they stood for. The people in them loved their rules, and it seemed to me that if you didn’t follow them, then you didn’t fit in, and that meant you weren’t a good enough Christian. I hated that idea. I’d had enough drama in middle school and I wasn’t about to stand for it at church of all places! 

At that moment I felt like a cookie. I was already taking shape with my own ideas of what being a Christian meant when it seemed other people came along, trying to stamp me with their foreign, totally different shaped cookie cutters. I rebelled against this concept of Christianity that people were shoving down my throat; it felt fake, following all those rules and regulations. I adamantly complained to my mom about these people, arguing that we weren’t under the law anymore, but grace (Rom 6:14). It wasn’t until much later that I came to the realization that this was a physical manifestation of worship for them.

Despite my steadfast resistance to the “rules and regulations” lifestyle, it turned out that down the road I did the same thing myself, just in a different way. A few years ago, I went through a period where I felt like I was a failure in everything I attempted because I couldn’t do everything well enough. I had established “rules” for myself specifying things I thought I needed to do in order to be a better Christian. I limited the music I listened to. Anyone who I couldn’t picture on Winter Jam was a hard no. Every thought that didn’t match Phil 4:8 made me feel guilty. I had good intentions in what I was doing, but in the end all these rules I was placing on myself were making me miserable! It felt like any time I forgot to cross a “t” or dot an “i,” God became ashamed of me and I managed to knock myself back to square one. In reality, I was defining the shape of my own cookie cutter. But this time, the only one applying the pressure was me. I placed so much of a burden on myself, I never felt like I was good enough to do anything.

The truth? I wasn’t. I can’t be. I’m a human being in a fallen world. I’m a sinner by nature. Despite my well-intentioned attempts to become more spiritual and closer to God, I was clinging to the wrong thoughts: I can’t do anything, I’m not good enough, I just keep messing up.

But I can’t live stuck in that cycle. While I am a sinner, I am now a sinner saved by grace. Christ is enough and He chooses to be enough on my behalf. I don’t have to do everything perfectly because Jesus already did. I was fighting a battle in my mind that had already been won on Calvary (Isa 53:4-5). I can’t live a victorious life in Christ bound by the fact that I’m not qualified. I shouldn’t feel the need to add my own details to the cookie cutter or try to construct a new one completely. Instead, I have to learn to embrace the knowledge that God has grace for me when I mess up and that I need to give grace to myself. In the end, all God wants is my obedience and willingness to do His will (John 14:23). There should only be one mold I strive to look like, and that’s Jesus.