Too many people want everything to be super-spiritual at the expense of being human. When I was growing up we had a gaggle of Christian keeners we called “The Power Pew.” The Power Pew, comprised of three couples, never thought we prayed enough, thought we laughed too much and disgraced ourselves because of our mirth, never thought we quoted enough Bible verses, thought we went to too many movies and enjoyed too much secular music, never thought we fasted enough, thought we spent too much time having friends over for dinner without witnessing to them, and so on.
They just never believed that anybody else was spiritual enough to be called Christian.
That was decades ago.
Today, all three couples are divorced and have one or both ex-spouses with some addiction. None attend church, let alone serve, and none consider themselves “spiritual” any longer.
Such disasters are complex and cannot be reduced to just one explanation; however, I strongly suspect that any marriage in which laughter is frowned upon, in which meals should only be for nourishment, in which sex should only be for procreation, in which music should only be for psalmistry, in which friendship should only be evangelistic, in which literature should only be doctrinal, will eventually self-destruct.
Everything that Jesus validated in his earthly life, the super-spiritual have tried to invalidate by being holier than him, as if Jesus had merely pointed us in the direction of holiness, hoping that we could somehow improve upon his example.
We must understand that God’s glory was seen through the humanity of Jesus, not his deity. It’s not the miracles of Jesus that are unique—deities of all stripes have claimed miraculous powers for millennia—but the ordinary, everyday-ness of Jesus’ love and friendship, family and travel.
Adapted from Why God Died