If you follow the blog, you know I’ve been doing final revisions on a chapter of new material for the past week. The book began earlier in the year when I decided it was time to revisit everything I had been taught in my faith tradition about following Jesus. It is a collection of meditations that begins and ends with the Beatitudes in Matthew. This particular chapter, “Free Trade Coffee and Jesus Tattoos” wrestles with a line from Jesus’ Kingdom vision that keeps me awake at night. Working through my edits, I came across some lines I had written about “blue card spirituality.” In some corners of evangelical America, we say the Sinner’s Prayer andfill out a convenient little card for the usherin hopes that we mayavoid a sentence of eternal damnation when we die. It’s as easy as that. The church tallies the number of conversions and sends it to district headquarters where it is kept on some holy ledger. Now, I don’t mean to denigrate the power of one decision to change our lives, but there is something about our drive-through approach to conversion that defies what it means to be a disciple. I also wonder if we are so consumed with personal spirituality, that we no longer even notice the needs of our neighbors. Unfortunately, I can apply the “blue card” metaphor to many areas of my faith practice. Take a moment today and simply ask yourself the question: what does it mean to live the kind of spirituality that Jesus requires? In what ways have you simply been resigned to fill out the blue card and go about your business?