There are a lot of us who look to religion as a source of comfort and security. It makes sense because we all feel a sense of dis-ease in our lives. We all are looking for stability and an anchor. We all need a steady foundation to jump off from into this world of adventure.
The problem is that Christianity is not, despite what it looks like, a traditional religion. It is the one religion that attempts to dismantle religion by undercutting the notion that religion saves. It is, as Christians say, Grace that saves us - not our own actions or works.
If Christianity is not a traditional religion that attempts to get people to do the right things in order to save themselves, what is Christianity? Søren Kierkegaard called Christianity a state of unrest. That may only be mildly surprising. Perhaps you have heard it said that Christianity comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable? Hearing that Christianity is really a state of unrest is not what is necessarily notable here.
What is notable is what Kierkegaard points out to us: this unrest is initiated by God: “Christianity is the most intensive and strongest form of unrest thinkable. Christ’s coming is intended to disturb life. Where one wants to become a Christian, there will be unrest; and where one has become a Christian, there unrest follows.”
Here we are confronted with the idea that God is the one who gives us this unrest. But why? Why would God initiate a state of unrest in us? I thought God was in the work of rest and peace not unrest and restlessness.
It is this state of unrest that is the engine of our lives. The unrest is the point. The point is to see that in all of life, the thing that gives energy to us all, is an unrest or what we might call a contradiction. No matter where you look, outside or within, contradiction is woven into the fabric of creation. We are busy trying to root out this unrest/contradiction all the while the fabric frays. The more we try to root out the unrest or contradiction in our lives, the more it will explode in the world and many times it explodes in unhealthy ways. You see the unrest is the very engine of our lives, it is the thing that gives us energy. Until we come to peace with the unrest in our lives then we will erupt with violence.