we're boring people...

friedrich nietzsche wrote, "we have no dreams at all or interesting ones. we should learn to be awake the same way - not at all or in an interesting manner." good point.

i have realized that we christians are a really boring people. i am certainly including myself in this. i have just been very convicted lately that the very people who claim that God has blessed them with spiritual gifts, talents, and creativity are the very people who seem to spend most of their time being very rigid and unoriginal. further, we claim to be created in the image of God who is THE CREATOR. honestly, could we live in a more boring fashion? worse yet, we make God and His message boring. it is like we are saying that this message that we have (which we claim is life-altering and provides life and freedom itself) isn't worth our time to figure out how to live out and show to others in an interesting way.

please don't misunderstand me... i don't want to risk sounding like it is our job to make God "relevant." this is an ridiculous idea, since it is God who makes all things relevant. i do think that God has blessed us with gifts and talents (and brains that can reason!) in order to bring glory to Himself, though. and there was a time when people's faith was expressed creatively in their lives - some of the greatest art (including music, architecture, and literature) ever produced came from these expressions. but the church has ceased to be creative and has begun copying secular society. and we wonder why the church is shrinking at drastic rates. perhaps the world looks at our laziness and lack of zeal and thinks that these things have spoken pretty loudly about our attitude toward our faith.

further, there are a lot of problems in the church and in the world that don't get solved because we don't spend time thinking of how to handle them. we feel like it is too costly to dream these things up. we are struggling to hold things together as they are now, right? here are some crazy thoughts: what if we didn't just see our professions as a means to an end - retirement? what if ministers didn't view sunday morning as just another sermon to get through but as a time (maybe the only time) to deliver the life-giving words of God? what if teachers saw their work not just as a job but as a time to share with children the knowledge that would help their lives be productive? what if scientists saw their work for what it is - as a chance to learn more about God's creation in order to protect and sustain it? the list could go on and on. the point is - what if all this struggle to hold things together is just self-created because we are not doing things in a way that allows us to be creative and passionate? what if this freed us up to do them as they should be done?

the truth is, nevertheless, that it takes a lot of energy to live this way, and it is easy to get caught in the flow of life and lived tired and boring. my friends, life is a battle either way, and we have only one chance. you can choose to struggle to just make it through each day or you can choose to struggle to make it through the day creatively. my attitude is - i would rather live forty hard-fought years and die than live a boring life to be a hundred. i choose to fight because, frankly, i am sick of a morally inept society with its poverty (spiritual and financial), corrupt politicians, failing school systems, wars, and polluted environment. i choose to fight because i think God wants more from the church than just becoming secularized with its diminishing influence and attendance, its biblically illiterate members, its ineffective and boring educational programs, its wimpy stand on social and moral issues, and its stressed out clergy. more than these things, i choose to fight because death has already been defeated. i choose to fight because there is beauty and truth that just needs someone to shine some light on it. i choose to fight because i believe that God continues to move in this world and continues to do new things. i choose to fight because one day this battle will be over and LOVE WILL WIN!

each day is a blank canvas, an empty piece of sheet music, a shapeless lump of clay or stone, a blank roll of film... what are you doing with it?

cheers,
jw <><