Tragically not hip ...

I wasn't surprised. In fact, I pretty much expected it. Actually, I would have been disappointed if it hadn't happened. It was Tuesday morning and there in my inbox was a note from my co-host, Marlo Boux. She was at it again. Mixing it up in online discussion groups. Sniffing out stories. Looking for angles. (Looking for trouble.) She'd come across a stream of judgmental, self-righteous rants from believers taking cheap shots at atheists and agnostics (or even other believers who didn't buy into their particular brand of right-wing conservativism). And she was taking them on.

They never saw it coming. They never knew what hit them. Armed with her Amplified Bible, the grace of Jesus, the love of God, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, Marlo pushed them hard, arguing for compassion, understanding, and respect for others. She served it with a smile (and probably a muffin), but she kept coming back at them every time they tried to shut her down (or shut her up). Marlo's intervention may or may not have been changed people's minds. What it did for certain was introduce a conscience into the conversation. Why do we think we can diss others with impunity?

The church has a problem. It has a nostalgia-driven notion that the U.S. and Canada used to be "Christian" countries. According to this hyperreal version of history, the good old days were heaven on earth: everyone feared God, everyone believed in the Bible, the courts and schools upheld Scripture and prayer, and everyone prospered. All what we need now is a return to the good old days: more God in the court house, more God in the school house, and more God in the White House (or 24 Sussex Drive).

I'm not going to bother to dredge up all the state-sponsored and church-sanctioned atrocities of the so-called good old days. I just want to say I'm tired of looking for Jesus in all the wrong places. I don't expect to find him in the court house or the school house. I'm happy if he shows up in the church house. When Jesus walked the face of the earth you'd find him outside the court house and the school house (and the church house for that matter). If you want to find him today, hang out with the hungry, the thirsty, the strangers, the naked, the sick, and the prisoners (Matthew 25.35-40). I keep bumping into him on Wednesday nights, handing out sandwiches and drink boxes down on Princess Street.

Why do "believers" spend so much time lamenting the state of society, yet buying into at the same time? According to Andy Crouch, author Culture Making, the church (especially its conservative varieties) has a love/hate relationship with culture. It either condemns and critiques it or copies and consumes it. What the church rarely does these days is cultivate and create culture. That's shocking when you think about it. Shouldn't creationists be creative? Shouldn't people who think they're made in the image of creative God be creating a vivid/vibrant culture instead of complaining there isn't enough God in the existing culture? (Or worse: baptizing existing culture with Christianeese and passing it off as "Christian".)

I think it's time we stopped looking for Jesus in the surrounding culture and started looking like Jesus. That's creative. That's redemptive. That's inspiring.

I'm taking my cue from the apostles, who admittedly started off looking for Jesus instead of looking like him. I attribute the false start to separation anxiety -- one minute Jesus was there, the next minute he was gone. Literally. Here's how Jesus peace'd out:

"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." (Acts 1.8-11)

The apostles eventually got their act together. They stopped looking for Jesus and started looking like Jesus (they became his witnesses as he said they would). They turned the world upside down (Acts 17.6). The Spirit of Jesus exploded their doubts and insecurities like metaphysical dynamite. They became "empowered" in the most profound sense of the word. There was no God in the court house, no God in the school house, and the church house (synagogue) wasn't that friendly either, but none of that held the apostles back.

In true apostolic fashion, I think it's time for the church to get hip. HIP was always supposed to be the game plan. Check out the Apostle Paul:

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. (Ephesians 1.17-19)

It's time for so-called believers to live like they have Hope, an Inheritance, and Power ... instead of living like the best days are behind us, we've got nothing to draw from, and we can't really do anything about what's happening around us.

It's the 21st century. We live in an age of unprecedented freedom. With that freedom comes the real possibility of making mistakes, doing more harm than good, and leaving a legacy of chaos and consumption. But with that freedom also comes a real longing within people to find what's hip. People are looking for hope. People are looking for an inheritance to draw from. People are looking for power.

The world wants hip. The world needs hip. I think it would be tragic if the people who name the name of Jesus were the only people not hip.

sOnny-side up ...

My daughter called me just as I was heading out the door. Her car had been vandalized -- the driver's side window completely smashed out. Glass everywhere. The interior soaked from the pouring rain. Very traumatic for her -- I could hear it in her voice. For me: another day of dealing with multiple levels of mind-numbing bureaucracy. Police. Auto insurance. Glass repair shops. I groaned.

As I called Winnipeg Police Services on my way to the scene of the crime, I admit I wasn't optimistic. I've been underwhelmed by WPS when I've reported vandalism and theft in the past. The phone number is usually busy. Once I finally get through, I'm met with indifference or incompetence ... or both.

This time was different. Way different. I got through on the first ring. A pleasant voice answered the phone. The person taking my call was knowledgeable and considerate. It was a first-rate experience from beginning to end. Later in the day, a follow-up call from WPS was equally impressive. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give the non-emergency division of Winnipeg Police Services an 11. And I'd give the people who conceived and implemented the overhaul of this division a 12. Someone behind the scenes is doing something right.

My phone calls with Dr. Hook towing and Autopac were equally good. I was 3 for 3 on the day. Wow.

But indifference and incompetence snagged me on the next stop of the day. I should have seen it coming. I have a long-standing grudge against drive-thru's ... especially McDonald's drive-thru's. They take forever. They never get my order right. They overcharge me. Still, I'm a sucker for Egg McMuffins and I was in a rush, so I drove up to the Grant Park McD's drive-thru and hoped for the best. Alas, once again, they took forever. Once again, they got my order wrong (they gave me a Sausage McMuffin instead of an Egg McMuffin). I have no idea how they stay in business. (Maybe it's the overcharging part.)

I just gots to have my eggs, so I pulled into the A&W drive-thru on Waverley and tempted fate once again. I didn't wait too long to order. That was a good sign. The person taking my order was friendly and alert. Another good sign. She handed me my Bacon n' Egger and I was outta there in a flash.

Hoping to make up for lost time, I wheeled around the drive-thru, raced through the parking lot, and made a bee-line for the exit. That's when I noticed a blur of orange in the corner of my eye. It was my drive-thru attendant, racing across the parking lot in the winter wind, frantically waving, flagging me down. I hit the brakes, rolled down my window, and she handed me my credit card. The credit card I had left behind in my big rush to get back on the road. Then, she did me an even bigger favour: "I know what it's like to lose a credit card", she said. "I didn't want you to go through the same thing".

Rush, rush, rush. The story of my life. I rush because I've got so many important things to do. The world needs me.

But I don't think anything I did that day was as important as the fast-food worker who chased me down in the middle of a parking lot ... because she didn't want me to go through what she had gone through: the inconvenience and frustration of losing a credit card.

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you".

Some people get it. One of them is wearing an orange uniform and making minimum wage down at the Waverley A&W. The guy driving the black Pontiac SUV is grateful for the lesson learned.

Lame!

"That's lame".

I hear that expression a dozen times a day. Half the time the expression is coming from my lips!

Sometimes it's a reference to a bad song on the radio or a lousy advertisement on TV. Sometimes, it's a reference to the behaviour of others, particularly behaviour that disappoints me or lets me down in some way.

In these cases, I'm essentially using the word "lame" as a acronym; i.e., Lazy And Making Excuses. You don't want to be around me when someone is lazy and making excuses. Just ask my church -- they'll tell you what I'm like! (Ugh.)

I'm not saying laziness and excuse-making shouldn't be confronted. When people slip into L.A.M.E. behaviour, they're letting others down. They need to know that. They need to hear how their actions (or lack thereof) are impacting other people. The rest of us owe them an intervention.

Which is my point. There's something about the L.A.M.E. behaviour of others that can quickly trigger our own L.A.M.E. tendencies. There's something amiss when we use the L.A.M.E.-ness of others as a reason to write them off. It's especially a problem when we wanted to write them off all along and their L.A.M.E. behaviour just happened to give us a reason to do so.

Who's L.A.M.E. now?

Relationships take work. By work, I don't mean putting up with the inaction and indifference of others. What I do mean is something the Apostle Paul calls "speaking the truth in love" (Ephesians 4.15). In fact, the Apostle describes speaking the truth in love as essential to our spiritual connection to Jesus.

Easy to say. Hard to do. I've seen a lot of people speaking the "truth", which is usually some self-centered rant about how they're offended, shocked, and disappointed by someone else. On the other side of the equation, I've seen a lot of people perpetually put up with the neglect or abuse of others out of the mistaken notion that love is analogous to a limp noodle.

Truth and love belong together. Truth is an attempt to express what I really think and feel. Love is the recognition that the whole world does not revolve around what I think and feel. Speak the truth in love -- let these two elemental qualities interplay with each other in your relationships with others.

Are you game?

Or are you L.A.M.E.? Do you have what it takes to speak the truth in love with your family, friends, co-workers, the people in your church, etc.? Or are you going to let their L.A.M.E. behaviour turn you into just another person being lazy and making excuses?