Thin-Soup Christians

When Eugene spoke, I listened intently to his wisdom.

“I know a person who is always buying cookbooks,” he said. “But they never cook. They’re satisfied with just looking at the pictures.”

Eugene then expanded the thought into what he describes as thin-soup Christians. They buy books on Christian living, yet they never engage in the deeper God-life which is the thrust of those books.

They’re satisfied to: “look at the pictures.”

Consequently they lack significant godly qualities. Their spiritual soup is thin.

Do you know anybody like that? I eat breakfast everyday with someone who’s constantly battling this dilemma.

My breakfast companion? Me.

Jesus’ brother James had a lot to say about thin-soupers. He put it in the context of listening rather than reading. Same concept.

Here are his words: “Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.”

James is saying: just looking at the pictures is utter foolishness.

And then James offers his recipe for cooking up a thick, hearty-souped Christian. “But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God--the free life!--even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.”

The thin-thick contrast is easy to spot. And “delight” is comforting. But “easy” evaporates when the action oriented God-life is pursued. Beyond a daily challenge; it’s a minute by minute push.

Our best plan? Call out to God for help.