My little life has been shifting gears. Online I’ve made the choice to leave the main social media outlets behind and shifted over to MeWe and Parler. Offline I’ve been playing and singing more and finding my voice again. It’s a funny thing…it is often a huge earth-shaking event in our lives that can steal our voice, and it then takes another monumental shift for us to find it again. With everything going on in the world right now I have found myself being pushed past my fears and needing to get my voice out there.
This time around, I think I am much more aware of how I can be wrong, but I’m also more aware that I cannot let a fear of being wrong hold me back. There is just the need to be both brave and humble. Being willing to make mistakes publicly, have others see them, then be willing to own those mistakes and move on. There is really no other way. If we are going to build community it requires open, honest debate. We have to be able to challenge one another and have productive arguments. We need to speak the truth to each other as best we know it, understanding that either of us may be wrong at any point. The only risk there is our egos and those need to be diminished anyway.
Your voice is needed too. You may be right. You may be wrong. You may be a bit unhinged…but you are still a part of this conversation. As Christians, we are currently suffocating under a pressure to be nice and behave. We have trained ourselves that the ultimate virtue is to be polite and civil. If that is your view, then I hate to burst your bubble, but niceness is not holiness. It’s not necessarily even loving. Many times our niceness is a tool to make people like us and to smooth our functioning in the world. We hide behind civility and ceremony so that we don’t have to be known for who we truly are.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am actually a fan of niceness. Nice is often highly underrated. BUT, it is not the primary trait of the Godly, of those that would walk in Christ’s footsteps. Those traits would be holiness, faithfulness, and love. Not love in the modern sense, but a love that is raging and determined and fully committed to pleasing God as our ultimate Lover. Out of the wellspring of that relationship we then find genuine love for our neighbor, even though that love will often be interpreted as something other when we begin to speak the truth in love.
Love doesn’t minimize sin, yours or mine. Love doesn’t make it’s own safety or approval the primary concern. Love, being love, is most concerned with the ultimate well being of those that we love. The pinnacle of this then is concern for the soul of the one loved, concern for their eternal salvation. Yes, I know that sounds very orthodox, very “Bible thumping”. But, look…we’ve been sold a bill of goods. We’ve thought we could just live out our nice little Christian lives and somehow change the world. We love to quote “Preach at all times. If necessary, use words.” A great quote, but we hide behind it so that we never have to risk using the words.
Ah, words. We have something to say, you and me. We have something that we need to say. Let’s keep it simple. For everything we are facing in the world right now, the argument we need to lead with is that Jesus Christ is Lord. He is King…of everything! When we deny that truth, we are rebelling against the only legitimate ruler of the universe. Our neighbors need to hear this. Our family needs to hear this. Our world needs to hear this. We have a benevolent dictator that is large and in charge. He is loving but He is holy and He wants to invade each life and bring them back to life!
So what is required of us is to be brave. Christian…what have you got to lose? We have eternity before us. This life will be gone in an instant. Let the world scorn and mock. Confront those within the Church who would pervert the gospel into something that leaves people in their sin and coddles them in their vices. Jesus has the power to save. He has power over sin and death. We have what the world needs, whether they want it or not. Love will count the cost, take the arrows and proclaim Christ boldly anyway.
So, find your voice. Even if it is just a whisper for now. Start where you can. Start today. Write, sing, share. Declaring Jesus’ lordship to this dying world is the most loving thing we could ever do. You can do this.
The Problem Of Being Alive 