I've been reading "Blue Like Jazz", a book written by Donald Miller. He writes that he doesn't like jazz music because it doesn't resolve. That might be true, but personally I enjoy listening to jazz and blues music, perhaps it is because there's so much unresolved within me, or maybe not I really don't know. Music however isn't the topic of the book, it's more about how we view God, ourselves and others, as well as challenging some of the stereotypes that have formed our christian views and identity. And he get's to the core issue of our existance, the key of what love is and how we use it and respond to it.
As I read the last chapter, he presents problem of a Christian culture that thinks of love as a commodity. We use love like money, but it doesn't work like money. Our love is conditional, not unconditional as we so often we claim it is. We expect something in return and when we don't receive it we feel cheated, as if we "didn't get what we paid for". The reality is that when we barter with love we all loose. Christ gave an example of unconditional love which very few christians come even close to.
With our "unconditional love" we try to impliment or persuade change in other people's lives. We expect them to conform to our ideals of how a christian should behave, and when they don't respond to our expectations in our timeframe, we tend to withhold our "unconditional love" from them. Our "love" changes with the response we receive. Is this really unconditional?
There was a time I struggled to understand why it's not ok for a christian to be sad, or heaven forbid depressed. A church I attended many years ago, had the understanding the Christian life should be a celebration, and there was very little room for sadness or sorrow. It was always an easy fix, just praise our loving God, sing and dance in His presence regardless of how you feel. "It will all get better, the problems will dissapear". What in fact was happening was that the underlying issue of one's struggle or sadness was swept under the carpet of what i now call "praise theology".
There is alot of truth to worshiping God and finding peace in the midst of turmoil, however the form of worship may not always be as we tend to define it. We seem to encourage ourselves and others to look for an escape, to "fake our feelings" denying the underlying cause of one's sadness or depression rather than dealing with the root issue. The result is that we place expectations on others and create masks that fill other's expectations. Sorry, but I can't remain in an enviroment that isn't genuine. It's so sad to see those who "happy face" their way through friendships, church and life filling expectations rather than finding genuine relationships, genuine people with genuine hearts.
How many people have we alienated with our "conditions", the very same people our compassionate God is reaching out to with true unconditional love.. We accept people when they are happy, and have a tendency to draw away from people who are sad. The Bible says there is a time to rejoice and a time to weep, a time to dance and a time to mourn, and that we should weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn. I believe there are times we desperately NEED to be sad, to deny this is to deny God the opportunity to work something good through our sadness. We do a disservice to ourselves and others by not acknowledging that Christ as well as our brothers and sisters are with us through our deepest despair, not only when we "put on our happy face".
Oh, the masks we hide behind when we fear to reveal our sadness or despair. Unfortunately in many circles these masks are rightfully needed, so long as people continue to barter with a selfish commodity we like to call love. I pray there would be more who would grasp a fraction of what unconditional love really is.
No comments:
Post a Comment