Soap Box: Being Relevant

January 18, 2008 by · 5 Comments

*I like to name by ranting blogs “soapbox” so you know I just need to vent and that you shouldn’t take me too seriously. Or should you???? she says cryptically. Take what you want from here, and leave the rest.

Being Relevant. What does that mean? I had a friend say he didn’t feel like he was relevant and it got me thinking, am I relevant, or am I too relevant? Relevant to what- you ask, that makes all the difference. Relevant to society while claiming to have a relationship with God. A ‘Christian’. I don’t like the word, it bring up too many negative connotations for a lot of people. I mean, Jesus wasn’t a Christian! “Do not be of the world”, OF the world- while living it. Don’t get tangled up in the finite things in your life. But then, it comes back to being relevant. How can you actually reach people and help them if you can’t relate to them? I feel like I’m judged for being a ‘Christian’, just because of other Christians who didn’t live their life in a Christ like way. “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and walk out the door, and deny him with their life style. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.” -unknown (to me). I completely agree with that statement. I hate being under the banner of ‘Christianity’ sometimes. I feel like people put me instantly in a box. The box of judgement, bigotry, hypocrisy to name a few.

“Let he who is without sin be the first to cast a stone” has always been a motto. I’m not saying I’d not correct someone I was close to who was screwing up their life by any means. I’d not correct just anyone that I didn’t already have a repertoire with and know their value system and it would be wrong NOT to tell someone I was close to what they were doing was wrong if it was hurting them and their families. On the other hand, I don’t hold people to my own personal standards. We have free will and with that comes decisions one has to live with. This is within reason of course, if someone is breaking the law I’d probably tell them to stop even if I didn’t know them very well…

I like to worship God. Not in traditional ways. I feel God when I’m walking in the woods, and the sunlight filters in just so. I feel God when I listen to non-‘Christian’ songs! I like the cliche’ Postal Service and The Shins, nothing is better than some “Such Great Heights”, “Recycled Air” or “Saint Simon” or even “New Slang”. I can relate sometimes to the sad “Nothing better”. I want to lift my hands and praise God when I hear the opening cords of Filter’s “Take my Picture” and Coldplay’s “Clocks” or the midsection swelling of their “Fix you” which is one of my all time favorite songs. I love the re-make of “Over the Rainbow” by whats-his-face and Rufus Wainwright’s cover of the classic Beatles song “Across the Universe” and his “Cigarettes and Chocolate”. I love Moby’s “Everloving”, Ivy’s “Edge of the Ocean”, I could go on and on… and… I’m so embarrassed to say this… “Hey there Delilah” by the Plain White Tees… Don’t laugh!

I think God laughs at “Puff, the Magic Dragon”! I think he has to like “Fire and Rain” and “Everything I own” EVEN “Imagine” because they are GOOD songs and he is the creator of humor and music! There are dozens of references of singing to the Lord, dancing to the Lord, and shouting for joy to the Lord in the Bible! The songs sung described in the ‘dated’ bible is not the hymns I know of from Church, they sound more like wild, crazy RAVES. He laughs at us! He embraces our inner craziness that no one knows about.

So back to being relevant. I tend to be liberal when I’m around stuck-in-the-mud conservatives, or conservative around angry-self-righteous-sob Libs. I have had my ‘non-Christian’ friends tell me that they like me b/c I don’t seem judgemental. I don’t say that to brag at all, it’s just back to the “Let he who is without sin….” How can I truly be their friend if I’m constantly judging them? I can’t. So, CAN I relate to people without either judging them or them feeling judged unjustly by the Christian stigma attached to my belief system???????? And the IRONY of people not liking me simply b/c of a label when that is what they, themselves, feel most judged for. How Relevant am I? I can be really black and white sometimes too. How can two people be able to relate to one another with two completely different value systems and co-exist without judging one another? Can they? To end this on a completely cheesy note, I think yes. To quote one of my favorites “… All You Need is LOVE…” Love without reservation, love everyone, love equally. That is really hard, I’m sure I don’t live up to my own words one little bit. “Love covers a multitude of sins”. (Sins by each party, even the party that may not believe in “sin”…lol!) Love, Love, LOVE! That’s all, I’m done and feel a lot better, I hope you do too.

Filed Under: soapbox ·
  • Amanda

    We recently watched a series called “30 Days” and one of his topics had a guy from a conservative Christian background go to live in a very Muslim part of the U.S. He had to live for 30 days following their way of life – including the five-times-daily Call to Prayer. The main thing that I learned, and was surprised by, was to see him being discriminated against for wearing their clothes and carrying a Qur’an. (Did you know that’s how it’s spelled on the actual book? With a Q.)

    They searched him at every check point through his airport stops. He tried to get a petition signed calling for the end to discrimination of Muslims. No one would sign it. Some were even down-right mean.

    The question he asked his host family, and was asked of him on a radio show, was “Why haven’t the Muslims apologized for 9-11?” Like it is their fault, collectively, for some crackpots’ ideas. Their reply was that “They” had no reason to apologize any more than Christians needed to apologize for such things as the Crusades. Albeit, that wound is old and doesn’t hurt us much now…

    Still, it was interesting to learn how mild practicing Muslims really are. Not only are they not called to violence, they won’t even drink a beer!! God (Allah) has forbidden it and to drink even one would allow room for temptation.

    I don’t know that I agree that I can’t control myself after one beer, but I think I’ll try to keep my mouth closed a little more, maybe, and judge a little less. After all, how well do I really know “them?”

  • Katy

    hey so i feel stupid reading this because i feel like we had a conversation about the importance of being relevant lately…hmmm “do i annoy my sister perhaps…”

  • WiredForStereo

    “I tend to be liberal when I’m around stuck-in-the-mud conservatives, or conservative around angry-self-righteous-sob Libs.”

    What are you around me?

  • WiredForStereo

    I agree with you about what you said about people trying to be relevant. However, it’s not the relevant people who are concerned with this, it’s the irrelevant. The relevant Christians (I like to be called a Jesus Freak, no ambiguity there) are the ones who are already in the culture, doing like Jesus did and tearing away the foundation from within.

    No, leave discussions of relevance to church boards and congregations struggling to gain members. We are individually as relevant as we need to be.

  • The Clarks

    well, since you don’t really fall in either catergory… I’m myself.