In Soul Talk, Larry Crabb makes the following comment:
“The weakness of modern Christianity, with its shallow worship and rootless excitement and crowd-friendly relevance, can be traced to one assumption: We think God’s Spirit was sent to earth to give us the happiness that blessings bring” (220).
He continues:
“Now we’re in competition with every other religion and self-help movement and political ideology to produce the good life. It’s a competition we cannot win, because Christ never promised us the blessings of heaven till we get there” (221).
One more:
“Modern Christianity has dramatically reversed its ancient form by assuming that the Spirit is moving toward giving us a good life (as we define it) more than growing Christ in us” (221-222).
These are some pretty hard hitting thoughts. Is Larry Crabb right? Has American Christianity essentially puts its greatest hope for faith in Christ in the idol of comfortability? Are we putting things of secondary importance above our relationship with Christ and trust in God’s will? What do you think?
Kevin M. Watson 
I would agree with everything you have said. Christ never promised us a ‘good life’ and certainly never promised that life would be without it’s troubles. He only promised that he would be with us.
I can tell you from experience that God has provided for me in times of desperate need, but I have no right to demand riches from God.
I think the teaching that Christians are meant to be ‘happy’ and ‘victorious’ has caused so much damage to the body of Christ. I have seen many people damaged by it and have seen people walk away from God because of it.
Unfortunately, when people like my own father think of Christianity they think of the greedy preacher or the far right and that is a shame.
Veronica, Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I appreciate your perspective. One of the things that I have found myself wrestling with is how subtle this search for the ‘good life’ can be. And I think you are right on in your suggestion that when people build their faith upon such a foundation, they often walk away when they find it lacks integrity.