Religion must be full of life and beauty. Don’t kill it. Our religion of the day is loathsome to the onlookers. It is not attractive; it smells not so good. They sniff at it and move off not wanting any of that stuff. They even put their hanky to their noses. Why ? Why has our religion putrefied? Why don’t people embrace it? Oh, why?

I think we have killed, rather murdered our religion and it is decaying. Rigor mortis has set in and it is stiff. Its eyes are no more lustrous. They are not moving. No signs of movement. Its jaws are open. No smile. Heart-beat is not heard. Pulse is not felt. It is bound in a white linen cloth with a dash of scent to tell the world, After all it is not so bad; they can fearlessly come near. The bouquet of flowers is inviting but when people come near they realise it is a funeral decoration.

This is how I became when I came to the Lord. Everything was sin to me. I became superconscious of my conscience, forgetting the grace of God which was keeping me. I lost my smile and wore a serious face. I hardly opened my mouth. I used to be a voracious joker and would send the whole class into a roaring laughter. But now my place was hard to locate. I stopped mixing with people for fear of “corruption.” I wouldn’t come out to meet the guests but lock myself in my room. At the call of my parents I would come out, greet them and excuse myself shortly. I would not lift up my face while walking on the street but hang my head down. I took to white saris. My sister got angry with me. “Why are you looking so dowdy? My friends are asking if you had a failure.” “Chi,” I said. But nothing more than that, because I looked all failure and nothing in me spoke of victory to the world. Whereas in truth I was enjoying total victory and liberation and joy in Christ. I witnessed to some. They politely listened, looked at me up and down, thanked and walked away.

What was wrong with my religion? Why could not those folks understand the glory of my salvation? Because the glory was shut up. It was wrapped in dirty rags of self-righteousness. The joy was smothered. Slowly the truth began to dawn on me. My religion had no life in it. It was cold dead!

It is now an universal disease. Watch the face of the choir. So sober, so dull, so lifeless. Why is there no smile or radiating joy if we sing of a Living God? Because a deadly face has a label of “humility” in today’s religious language of believers. How often children are hushed up in a happy gathering! Telling children to shut up and sit still is as bad as asking adults to scream and run around. Imagine a world without naughty children! Nothing can be as bad as that.

There is no spontaneity in our religion. It is like a puppet show. Somebody has to stand behind and pull and push to keep us going. If the testimony string is pulled we testify. If the prayer string is pulled we pray. It does not come out bubbling of its own. If there is life will it be so?

A religious person is not supposed to play games these days. It is misunderstood. He feels guilty to hold a badminton racket. He wonders what others would think of him. O my! I wish we discard our wrong old ideas about religion.
We have lost the power of resistance against the devil. Diseases invade us and we accept them religiously as gifts from God. There is no vigour in us to fight back the devil and throw on him what he throws on us. We just float along the current. When Satan blocks our onward way we just sit there and wait for “God’s will.” A brainless amoeba knows how to turn and proceed when there is a block. If there is life will we not turn to the right or left or climb up the barricade?

There is no excitement in our religion. When a young man shares his achievement with excitement, all he receives is a grave nod. That expression is enough to put down his spirit. Such elders are probably insulated with something thicker than rubber! Such unemotional beings! He dares no more share any of his achievements. His talents get suppressed. But see in the Bible how God’s children rejoiced at a victory of a man of God. “The women had come out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing to meet king Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. So the women sang as they danced” (1 Sam 18:6,7).

The only sign of life that our religion possesses is probably fight, fight and fight—within the Body. Body cells fighting against body cells is cancer. The ultimatum is death. Our prayers for revival is enough proof that our religion is dead. We certainly need resuscitation. Oh let God give us mouth to mouth resuscitation! Let Him breathe in us the breath of life and we shall live and really live. Jesus came to give us life and that more abundantly. Let us learn to be more alive than the godless generation. They cannot express a mouthful of laughter. Watch their flint-like face. It tells you their religion is dead.

Don’t tell youth scary mission field stories and make them run away. Let those scary stories be used to challenge them. Transmit to them the thrill of the mission field, the joy of the harvest, the glory of suffering so that even death will become life for them. Paul had such a spirit. He did not weep in all his letters from prison. Rather he invoked joy, rejoicing, gladness, liberty, challenge, so much so “most of the brothers in the Lord became confident by his chains and were much more bold to speak the word without fear” (Phil 1:14). One reason why many youth are not enrolling themselves in the Lord’s army is that they are presented the darker side of things. Let your missionary challenge be bright and bubbling. Mothers, don’t cry when you send your children to the mission field. Garland them. Let the world know the honour of serving the Lord. Don’t melt the hearts of other mothers. When my husband resigned his job to serve the Lord fulltime, many people visited me to “comfort” me and convey their “condolence.” I devised a way to put an end to that nonsense. “No, no,” I said. “He is not resigning. He’s got a promotion.” That was the end of it.

The Bible preaches sobriety but adds to it singing; it speaks of demeanour but adds to it dance; it speaks of weeping but adds to it rejoicing. The Old Testament religion was one of festivals and jubilees. The New Testament equivalent is praise and thanksgiving. Nothing can better express what religion does in us than Psalm 30:11,12. “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, to the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.”

Some sample smiling saints:

“Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with singing” (Psa 126:2).

“Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took the timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances” (Ex 15:20).

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me... to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness... that He may be glorified” (Isa 61:1-3).

Jesus came to give us joy abundant. Why should we choose ashes when He gives beauty? And the spirit of heaviness when He clothes us with the garment of praise? Surely that doesn’t glorify God among the heathen.

Jesus condemned false humility and self-imposed sadness and dowdiness when He said, “When you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance... when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face” (Mt 6:16,17). “Why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations: Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh” (Col 2:20-23).

Let us all be Isaacs because God has made us laugh, so that all who hear will laugh with us! Celebrate Christmas rejoicing, New Year with thanksgiving, and Birthdays remembering the goodness of the Lord. Let your religion be full of colourful festoons. Laugh, sing, dance, play, joke; be happy, joyous, gayous!

Our joy should be so much that the mountains and hills and trees must be shaken out of their immobility to life. “For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace; and the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands” (Isa 55:12).

“Thus says the Lord God to these bones: surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live... Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves... I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live... Then you shall know that I the Lord have spoken it and performed it, says the Lord” (Ezek 37:5,12,14).