THE WITCH DOCTOR IN THE MIDDLE
Frank Sinatra said: “Religion is a deeply personal thing in which man and God go it alone together, without the witch doctor in the middle.”
I had never heard of religious professionals described in that manner, but I understand where he’s coming from, and what he’s talking about.
The witch doctor in the middle is supposed to tell us what to believe and how to think about God.
For the first twenty years of my life, I listened to the advice and exhortations of the witch doctors in the middle. They seemed to know what they were talking about, and who was I to question what they were saying? The only problem was that what they were saying did not live up to their promises.
It took many years to figure that the problem wasn’t me. The problem was them. They were long on promises and short on power. When things didn’t work out, they always said the problem was me.
It took at least another twenty years to figure out that the witch doctors in the middle didn’t know anything more about God than anyone else on the planet. They knew about creeds, confessions of faith, doctrines, and hundreds of ways of looking at God. They were trained to answer questions that nobody was asking. Religion was an argument that they were trained to win. What they did not learn in seminary was that the world does not want to be saved. The world wants to be loved, and love is how you save it.
All of their seminary training was for nought.
Seminaries created witch doctors in the middle, but it did not train people how to love.
Paul wrote the following words to Christians who lived in Corinth:
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
When I went to university, I spent two years training to become a witch doctor in the middle. After two years of diligent study, I figured out that I didn’t want to spend my life forcing people into religious molds.
Instead, I became a physician who freely dispensed love to all his patients. I learned that if love was not working, I needed to increase the dose.
God doesn’t do theology, and God doesn’t do religion. God does love.
Love is enough, it’s all that there is, and love is as good as it gets.
Love points us in the right direction and gives us the power to make the trip.
