The Revolution in Personalized Religion

An explosion of research in the past few years has taken us from a general observation that diseases tend to run in families to the discovery of very precise DNA variations that play a predictable role in many diseases, and that can be used to make increasingly accurate predictions about an individual’s potential future likelihood of illness.
—Francis S. Collins, The Language of Life: DNA and the Revolution in Personalized Medicine, xvi

Medicine is discovering precisely how alike we are and individually how different at the level of our basic encoding, our DNA. Francis Collins headed up the international Human Genome Project, which has mapped now, in exquisite detail, the 3.1 billion rungs on the human DNA ladder, containing over 20,000 individual genes. Mutations in the pattern, he discovered, account for the subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle differences among us. Illness and health, susceptibility and immunity to certain types of disease, and the ability to respond to certain treatments are largely genetic.

I imagine each of us has our own spiritual DNA. And it may be as complex as our biological genome. Our spiritual DNA isn’t made up of base chemicals, sugars, and phosphates. Instead, it’s shaped by how often we went to church as children, our parents attitudes toward religion, the particular Sunday School teachers we had, the number of times we dozed off listening to a dull sermon, the church camp games, the powerful bonds from youth group, the mountain top experiences we’ve had, the response that we received when we started questioning, and 19,992 other factors. Our religion can be as personalized as our physical health.

But as different as we are, as Christians we still have most of our spiritual DNA in common. We may mean slightly different things by it, but we confess Jesus as Lord and Savior and commit ourselves to living out his commandment to love God and neighbor. In the shorthand of the old hymn, we trust and obey. We share baptism and communion. We share scripture. We share a common tradition. We’re susceptible to many of the same spiritual diseases.

When you map your own spiritual genome, note the differences that make you unique, the weaknesses, the strengths. But note also what you have in common with other Christians. You may find we have more in common than you think!

Along the Way, I wish you God’s peace on today’s stage of your Lenten spiritual journey. May Christ’s companionship bless you with confidence for the day, comfort you in trouble, and put a spring of joy in your step.