Right! Moving on…
I've been challenged recently by a comment from Mother Teresa - "Some people are in our lives as a blessing, and others as a lesson". How true is that?!! Today I could easily picture both in my mind, the blessings, and the lessons. The trick is - will I learn the lessons quickly or will have to continue to go round and round that mountain… encountering MANY lessons along the way? I guess we all need to ask ourselves that question. And here's something to think about too - You and I are the lessons for someone else! haha! That's awesome. No one gets away with only being on one end of that equation.
But here's what's really been kinda eating at me lately. There seems to be a trend out there where "edgy" is in. In (some) Christian circles it's "in". It's that group of people who want to live in such a way that if you merely observed their lives, you may or may not know they are followers of Jesus. They drink excessively, they smoke "stuff", they swear, they tell the occasional off-colored joke, and don't have a whole lot of time or good things to say about the "church" in general (the building). They are "edgy" Christians. They might say they are "relatable", or "relevant" or "non-judgmental" or "non-legalistic" or something along those lines. And I get all that… and yet… I kinda go… really? Is that necessary? Is it helping to bring the kingdom of God to this earth? What is it with the "edge" anyway? Why do so many people want to live as close to it as they can?
Remember the questions from High Schoolers - the whole "How far is too far?" question when it came to messing around with your boyfriend or girlfriend? Well, now there seems to be that same kind of question… "How far away from holiness and godliness can I get before it's "too far"?" I think it goes back to motivation. Why are you even asking the question?
When I was in High School I was a teacher's assistant for one of my English teachers. Loved that job! She was incredibly cool. She was reading a story to the class one day, and I was bored, so decided to play with the stapler. She was sitting on a chair in the middle front of the classroom. I was sitting at her desk, off to her left behind her, but very much in front of the classroom where everyone could see me. They weren't paying attention to me though, as they were fully engaging in the story that was being read to them. I picked up the stapler, and opened it flat, so I could have the part where the staple comes out flat on my finger. I don't know if you realize this, but when you staple something, there is a pressure point that when you push on it, nothing happens for a little bit… and then Chi-cah!! The staple is stapled in the paper - or whatever. I decided I would very quietly try and see how far I could push it before the staple engaged into my finger. I very calmly placed the stapler over the top section of my middle finger… and sloooooooooowly pushed down… and then CHI-CAH!!! The staple fully went straight into my finger so it was flat on my flesh!!! Oh man, it hurt soooo bad!!
Not wanting to make a scene… I had to think fast. All I knew was that I needed that staple out NOW, so I grabbed it with my other fingers, and pulled hard. It came out… and then started bleeding profusely! OH NO!! No tissues anywhere in sight, and by now my face was beat red, partly because it hurt, partly because I was sure I was somehow disrupting the class, and partly because I was convinced I was going to die from staple poisoning! So, I did the only thing I possibly could given my circumstances… I quickly rubbed my bloody finger all under the desk… all over the wood, until my finger stopped bleeding.
Yeah. That was me in High School. Just one of many pretty ridiculous stories. haha
Sometimes we all act like that though… seeing how far we can push something before we get hurt… or get in trouble, or get fired, or get caught, or get pregnant, or somehow disappoint God, or flat out sin. And sometimes, that spring loaded action snaps and we are in that place of "uh oh" before we can even anticipate the consequences. We are honestly such silly people. Pretty much like I was in High School.
So is it cool to be a Christian and have a foul mouth, or drink too much, or flip someone off, or drop the f-bomb when you're preaching, or smoke "whatever herbal junk" that's not pot or tobacco (or IS pot or tobacco?) And is it okay to be anti-church establishment to the point of hurting the heart of God who asked us to meet together with other Believers and to live side by side with people we don't like very much sometimes?
Do you think God is okay with "edgy"? Do you think he slipped in the odd dirty joke with the disciples, or threw in an f-bomb during the Beatitudes? Do you think people knew he was different when he was in a crowd, or did He try and fit in however that may have looked back in his day?
Holiness. Do we even get what that word means? I don't. Not really. Except that it's probably a million miles from where I am right this minute. And thanks to the amazing grace of Jesus, when God looks at me - that IS what he sees… but it is a journey for me to walk out here on this earth. I guess another question is - can we really draw attention to Jesus without at least that pursuit?
It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Yup. I get that. So then why are we still enslaved to the old lusts and habits that had a hold of us before Christ cut us loose? Why haven't our mouths been redeemed with the rest of our soul? Maybe it's just all part of the journey. But it makes me nervous when I see leaders who don't seem to have any desire whatsoever to go forward in that particular journey. Seems to me like they are happy there. Happy being "edgy". But if "edgy" isn't "godly"… then is it really worth it?
