The other night, I tuned into the Top 40 radio station for the first time in a long time. I was on my way home after a full day's work and a few hours of grad school classes, and by this time my usual standby, the local NPR station, had already switched over to classical music. (I once thought I was well-cultured enough to have enjoyed or appreciated classical music, but for some time I've now found that I lose interest in it very quickly.) So, flipping around, I wound up at the Top 40 station.
I found myself tapping my non-driving foot to one of those songs with a good beat and a confident if a little strange-sounding female vocal. And I was actually kinda enjoying it while either deliberately or exhaustedly disregarding it's mindless, teeny-bopper-ish qualities... I got home and got around to looking up online what lyrics I could remember to see who it was.
...turns out I was rocking to Miley Cyrus.
So, who wants first dibs on running my man-card through the shredder? Oh, and I need some new music.
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It's been a while, but I'm back for a moment to toss out a thought I've had bouncing around for a bit- a thought that was finally pushed out after this past Sunday when we visited and ultimately decided against joining a particular new church, opting instead to stay with MBCC. But that's another post.
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My eyes tend to glaze over a bit whenever I hear a preacher or someone utter, often with exasperation or some knowing condescension in his or her voice, "Well you KNOW how dark the world is," or "People these days," or some other variant of a reminder of how the world is so staunchly unfriendly to their Christian principles or something like that. Is it supposed to be news, shocking breaking news, that "the world" is a "dark place?" I think the Bible made that pretty clear. And yet, with every development in the world that appears contrary to some Christians' woefully narrow-minded worldview[s] (there, I said it), it inspires some major lamentation of that vein.
On one hand, I don't disagree completely with what is said-- the world *is* a dark place (again, newsflash!) filled with broken people (me included). I get it. And yes, broken people do some pretty incredibly depraved things (oh, here's another one: "Have you seen the news, lately?"). But just what else were you expecting? If you "expected better of people," that strikes me as a bit of crummy hypocrisy; if to you, it's "just another example of how [insert hyperbole] bad people can really be," again it strikes me as whiny (though to be fair, I find myself wandering in this direction most often).
In a similar way, it's an interesting and, in my not-that-humble opinion, rather skewed world perspective when someone talks about how some other part of the world is "filled with darkness," or "the population is only X percent Chrisitan!" Take a look around- you live in a country (let's go ahead and assume this is the good ole US of A here) with an enormous population of "professing Christians," and yet I truly doubt it's any less dark here than Wherever-you're-singling-out-istan! It's disconcerting to hear something like this preached out in the open. Your so-called or so-deemed Christian nation (oh, please) needs grace as desperately as the rest of the world. Own that. It should be one of those "welcome to reality" moments.
To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that my attitude is wholly right on this, either. You shouldn't completely downplay the "depravity of the world," because I do actually believe it's a very real condition... but I'll admit, perhaps I underplay it by a lot.
My point is more about the folks who, to me it seems, haphazardly overplay the point like it either makes them feel better about themselves or feeds some obsession over it. It often seems, as Sharon has often noted with great distaste, suspiciously like an excuse to go proselytize in said faraway land rather than deal with the darkness just outside of your front door or of our suburban limits. The sooner you quit whining about what a terrible place this world is and get used to it (the horror!), the sooner you can move through it and be moved through it, I think. I trust and believe that is true.
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I am the only one to blame for this
Somehow it all ends up the same
Soaring on the wings of selfish pride
I flew too high and like Icarus I collide
With a world I try so hard to leave behind
To rid myself of all but love
to give and die
To turn away and not become
Another nail to pierce the skin of one who loves
more deeply than the oceans,
more abundant than the tears
Of a world embracing every heartache
Can I be the one to sacrifice
Or grip the spear and watch the blood and water flow
To love you - take my world apart
To need you - I am on my knees
To love you - take my world apart
To need you - broken on my knees
All said and done I stand alone
Amongst remains of a life I should not own
It takes all I am to believe
In the mercy that covers me
Did you really have to die for me?
All I am for all you are
Because what I need and what I believe are worlds apart
I look beyond the empty cross
forgetting what my life has cost
and wipe away the crimson stains
"dull the nails that still remain"
More and more I need you now,
I owe you more each passing hour
the battle between grace and pride
I gave up not so long ago
So steal my heart and take the pain
and wash the feet and cleanse my pride
take the selfish, take the weak,
and all the things I cannot hide
take the beauty, take my tears
the sin-soaked heart and make it yours
take my world all apart
take it now, take it now
and serve the ones that I despise
speak the words I can't deny
watch the world I used to love
fall to dust and thrown away
I look beyond the empty cross
forgetting what my life has cost
so wipe away the crimson stains
"dull the nails that still remains"
so steal my heart and take the pain
take the selfish, take the weak
and all the things I cannot hide
take the beauty, take my tears
take my world apart, take my world apart
I pray, I pray, I pray
take my world apart
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"Worlds Apart" by Jars of Clay. Still stops me in my tracks everytime I hear it.
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I've been on something of an unintended hiatus from blog posting. The dog days of summer are moseying by, and I've gone from taking no classes over the summer to the idiomatic drinking out of the three-classes-this-semester-while-working-full-time fire hydrant. It goes without saying that I find myself barely having time to keep up with it all. I'll get the hang of it.
I wish I had the time to put up some thoughtful posts. I have thoughtful posts, but the problem is that I don't have a very effective way to jot them down and then transfer them to this medium. I suppose that's why I've taken to Twitter so well, because I can send out some quick-hit thoughts without the hassle (I say somewhat jokingly) of putting my thoughts together cohesively (though this habit has its hazards, mindyou). But, there are a few posts floating around this mind of mine, and at some point I'd like to let them out.
Hope everyone's doing well, whoever's reading. While I haven't been posting, I still am able to read the blogs I follow via Google Reader, and I can say I've enjoyed my blogging-Tom glimpses into your lives. I'll get back to this soon as I can get myself straightened out, whenever that is.
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Oh dear Lord she's fallen off the wagon again! Big time. Pictures to follow, eventually.
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