Our culture loves a good story…..as long as we can consume it in about 2 hours.
Unfortunately, when a story that covers years or even lifetimes is condensed to a 2-hour tour-de-force of amazing videography and dialogue, all we get is the highlights. We no longer have to wait for anything; even the bad dialogue is only there to pass the time before we get another action scene or another heartfelt (and better than real life) love letter. When trying to apply this movie time-frame to our lives there is no way for us to get a sense of reality. There are no pauses for time to pass as the characters think and ponder their feelings, no real distance to make a heart grow fonder and no anticipation to build as plans are made to see each other.
Instead, we see a montage of near-instant transformation. Bad habits are exterminated, years go by in time-lapse, and love can be born, expressed and consummated in less time than a real conversation, even when the characters are worlds apart. I am not trying to rag on movies or stories; I love great stories and movies that cut to the heart. I just think that one of the side effects of this fast-forward culture is a disgust toward waiting…for anything.
Is patience overrated?
Fast food, speed dating, next day delivery, immediate answers to any question we can think of…”Siri how old is”…the days of anticipation have been replaced by the countdown of seconds until we can “enjoy life again”. I am by no means immune to this stereotype. Every aspect of my life is affected by this constant bombardment to get things done,the pressure to always be doing something (even if its just thumbing through Facebook) and the pressure to live up to these fictional character traits and time-tables handed to us from a Hollywood reality that doesn’t really exist.
Real-life heroes are different. We rarely find real-life heroes sitting around all day watching TV or updating their status. Instead, they show us that a journey that produces a story worth telling requires dedication, long hours of a servant like service to those we love and a lifelong commitment that propels us through times of waiting and adversity. Often LOTS of adversity. Good stories require it. When there is nothing to overcome, or no evil to outlast there really isn’t a story worth telling. Unfortunately, the villain in our real-life stories is most often not what we expect or even acknowledge. Instead, the moral pride we all have too often vilifies political agendas, cultural stereotypes or evil dictators as the bad guys in our world all the while skipping over the true issue. Our hearts.
"You hypocrite, take the Plank out of your own eye first!"
We sit in our ivory castles judging others secure in our moral superiority all the while ignoring the truth. If there really is a standard we can judge others by how can we be so sure our measuring stick is the right one? Who’s to say there isn’t some other higher standard which we too are falling short of? My judgment is every bit as partial and biased as the next person because all our judgments are subject to the influences that have raised us, the culture we grew up in, the time in History we live and the experiences we have had. We’re really all just bad people……right? After all who teaches toddlers to scream or talk back or hit each other? The answer is, of course, no one. It is ingrained in their character.
The laws of society keep us in check but our bend is to our own agenda at the expense of those who don’t agree with us. Since not everyone can be right this means there must be some cosmic or divine measuring stick. If not, then the laws we set up for the protection of life and the liberties and freedoms we think we have are simply human concoctions and can be changed at the whim of whoever is in power.
But, if there is a cosmic law then breaking this law is what we would define as morally bad. Christianity simply believes that God set up this cosmic law and holds us accountable to it. When we break His law (which everyone with no exception does) we call that sin. Sin, however, goes deeper than just something we do. It’s something that is born with us, a defiance that is ingrained in our very hearts (again, think of the toddler's instinct to defy or hit others). We want to be free from sinning or as the culture may call it “doing bad things”. But instead of looking in reality and trying to determine what is really going on with us, we have decided to simply re-categorize ourselves. We are no longer inherently bad, instead, we are good people who are “products of the bad world”.
This means that with enough teaching and the right upbringing even “bad people” can become “good” again. This idea is foolish when you think about it. People are the ones who hurt others, the world is the way it is because of people, not the other way around. In reality, the chasm isn’t between people and the evil world, but instead between people and the creator God. This leaves us lost and hopeless, after all:
There is no way for me, a bad person, to become good if this evil was born in my soul! what utter hopelessness.
So instead of facing these facts, we keep a tally in our head hoping our good deeds outweigh the bad ones. Anyone trying to live life like this knows its tedious and ultimately impossible. Thank God there is a better way!
The Gospel changes nothing about the facts, it plays no games when it comes to who we are (sinners) and what we deserve (judgment). Instead, it opens a door that wasn’t there before. God in His love has taken the punishment we rightly deserved and placed it on His Son. The just sacrificed for the unjust to save them from their sin. And there it is, the Gospel…….so simple: believe that there is a cosmic law that you break every day, believe that God still loved you so much He sent Jesus to take your punishment and follow what He says as He leads you to eternal life with Him! It is incredible how so many basic real world observations can make so much sense when laid out in the Bible and studied against what we see in the culture today. I can see a question being raised:
“How does all this work itself out in my story?”
This is where our culture of instant gratification has sabotaged us because the same mindset that captivates us in our entertainment has been welcomed into the Church today. Christianity becomes popular in a culture like ours when it gives easy (almost free) access to forgiveness so we can feel better about ourselves.
In the reality of the Gospel, this is just a mirage luring broken people in with a promise of a quick fix. This is after all what the world is after, a fix to a problem.
Instead of dwelling on what Jesus has done worldly Christianity asks “what would Jesus do?” because we want the answer so we can do the fixing ourselves. This is simply using the Gospel as a self-help guide, not resting our souls on the victory it has already won for us. This mindset is nothing new, remember how legalistic the Pharisees were, but the ideas have evolved with the changes in technology and society.
Ultimately, Christianity craves the same instant gratification that the world experiences. This is the Christianity that asks:
“Can’t I read my bible app once a week, pray when I feel sad or something’s going wrong and then expect everything to be fixed?”
Unfortunately, that’s just not reality. We too often forget that the Christian walk is a work of progressive sanctification, starting when we hear the call of God and finishing when we finally meet him in heaven. We will NOT see this work completed on earth! This idea of a toil that doesn’t end is nearly impossible to think about in a culture where we are upset when our food takes 5 minutes to long to arrive, or we haven’t “changed the world” after two months at a new job. Regardless, we are constantly reminded in scripture of the importance of this journey we are on (Matthew 16:24, Galatians 5:16-24) and the troubles we will experience along the way (John 16:33, 1 John 3:13). Throughout this journey we are also commanded to be “in the world not of it” (Romans 12:1-2), meaning our home is with God and we are to fight the daily fight to conquer sin and trust in Him until he returns. This is how the Gospel story is played out in our lives. This is the narrative that must drive us daily to his word, and moment by moment to constant prayer.
Remember that every story is part of this Gospel story. There is no exception.
The world is split between those who believe, those who doubt, those who question and those who reject it all together. Our part as Christians is not to judge others on where they are at in the story, instead it is to do everything in our power to help open their eyes to the greater story that we are all a part of.
So, by all means, enjoy the movies and stories told by others, revel in good film-making, and admonish and praise great writers, but never fall into the trap of thinking this is our reality. In his book, "A Praying Life" Paul Miller explains what happens when we get sucked into this kind of thinking:
“Many of us rush around without much conscious knowledge of the pilgrimage God is carving out for us. When tragedy strikes, we’ve not learned the ways of God, so we have no frame of reference from which to respond. So, we slog through life, missing the divine touches……..When we understand the story, it quiets our souls.”
When our life is a hurricane of to-do lists and activities, no matter how “Godly” they seem, we won’t be able to hear the gentle breeze of God’s grace and peace. But, as Mr. Miller says, when we see the story of our life as a part of the Gospel story it brings meaning! He continues:
“Just like a character in a good novel, I have choices to make. Will I run from the presence of my enemies, or will I wait for the Lord to prepare a table for me? Will I try to fill it with stuff, or will I let the shepherd make “me lie down in green pastures”? Life becomes an adventure.”
That is how I want to see my life, as an adventure. A Gospel Adventure.
This story worth telling leads through the valleys of empty joy, valleys of empty desires, and even valleys of death to bring us to the valley of true joy and contentment. Most of these valleys can’t be traversed in a day, or a year or even a lifetime, but if we persevere the journey will lead more clearly than ever before to seeing the grace of God, savoring the love of Jesus and will culminate with us drinking from the rivers of living water that are promised to those who endure to the end.
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No matter how easy the world makes it to sit and stay for a while remember that the path is broad and the way easy that leads to destruction, so tarry not at the fleeting pool of earthly pleasure when an ocean of joy is promised to those who endure.
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