I merge on to the highway as a speeding semi passes, and I watch a lone water drop–a leftover from this afternoon’s thunderstorm–streak across my windshield. I turn the radio up to rival the increased road noise, and the dilemma forces itself before me. Just because that woman is involved I’m observing from a distance. She’s always been up to no good. I’ve heard others call her a modern Jezebel, the embodiment of the feminist movement. If she’s involved it can’t be good. It just can’t.
Why are we so scared?
Why are we so scared? We’re so afraid to admit so many things, or even entertain simple notions. The very inkling that we might be wrong strikes terror in our hearts. Since when do we have all the right answers? Since when do we know it all? It’s funny how often we judge and tell others how the world is, yet we can’t see it for ourselves. Worst of all we whine when things don’t go our way and we’re offended at the slightest thing. Do you think God is ever offended by us? Do you think God stands up there in heaven shaking his head at all the little heathens? Bad heathen. Bad, bad, bad. Do you think God stands up there in heaven smiling at all the little Christians? Good Christian. Good, good, good. We like to make things so simple. We put God in our little box and that’s where he belongs. That’s why we don’t understand when there’s an ounce of the transcendent in something outside the four walls of the church. It’s because God will not be confined to a box. Yet we never understand.
No Stanley
Just when you finally take the time to watch the early rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, your team loses. Tonight I watched the Detroit Red Wings end their season by losing to Colorado. The interesting thing about sports is the consistent focus on winning. I suppose that’s probably the point. I just think it’s funny how obsessive you can be about it. All through the nineties the Red Wings were building a championship team. They kept coming closer and closer but they never quite made it. Something was always missing. In 1996 they almost had it and set a record for the most games won in the regular season. The playoffs came and something fell apart. Then in 1997 they got it right. Stanley Cup Championship. The winning formula continued in 1998 with a few changes, and they won again. In 1999 the formula wasn’t working so well and they didn’t even make it to the finals. And now in 2000 it’s the same story. As the final minutes ticked away in tonight’s game the announcer made the comment that this Red Wings team would face a lot of questions in the off season. The winning formula isn’t so winning anymore, and changes will be made. Never mind that they’re one of the best teams in the league and made it through one round of the playoffs. But if it’s not a Stanley Cup, it’s not good enough.
I know it’s the very nature of sports, and maybe this is why I only played T-ball and soccer as a kid. I played in the minorest league you could, and in that league it didn’t matter if you won, it didn’t matter if you scored. All that mattered was that you played. Even if you were just the catcher for your T-ball team (and I was), you were playing. It just seems kind of silly that it’s not enough to go out there and have fun, let the fans go crazy for a pretty good team. Pretty good isn’t enough. Now the Wings will start making major changes in the elusive search for another Championship. Of course changes break the team unity and things won’t be the same. Finding that perfect formula could take another forty plus years, the last dry spell between Stanley Cup Championships for Detroit. But I suppose that’s just the way things are. Change is a part life.
Varying Degrees
Can you have varying degrees of acceptable modesty? For example, on a Christian college campus is there a certain attire that is considered modest, and an attire that is immodest? And if there is such a standard, does it change? If you travel to a public university will the standard be different? If you travel to a public park will the standard be different? Will the standard be different at the beach? I can’t help but ask these questions after reading some letters to the editor in my college’s newspaper. The letters were dealing with lust and essentially pleading for the women on campus to dress modestly. Aside from the fact that modest is a relative term, how do we deal with the idea that there are varying degrees of acceptable modesty? What you might consider inappropriate attire for a college campus is perfectly reasonable for the beach. Why is that? Perhaps it’s just an issue of practicality and I should just shut up.
I’ve just been struggling with the issue because I don’t think the answer is as easy as we want it to be. Ask the girls to dress modestly and it’s all taken care of. How brave of the guys to step forward and ask such a noble question. But I don’t think it ends there. Frankly, I don’t think it should start there either. Certainly Paul talks in 1 Corinthians 8 about how Christians are not to be stumbling blocks for one another. It doesn’t help guys any if their Christian sisters are running around flaunting themselves. But in Matthew chapter 5 when Jesus claimed that looking at a woman lustfully was committing adultery with her, he told us if our right eye causes us to sin, gouge it out. I don’t think he meant for us to literally gouge our eyes out, but whatever he means, he means for us to do something drastic. Drastic and personal. He doesn’t tell us to attack what our eyes are looking at, he tells us to attack our own eyes. This issue isn’t simply about women dressing modestly. The time will come when you step away from the church and the women won’t dress modestly. What then?
I just want people to think things through a little deeper. Certainly I don’t have all the answers. It would probably do me good to think things through deeper myself. It just seems to me that the initial idea of forcing others to keep us pure is missing the whole point. The problem is personal, and the modesty of others will only get you so far.
Do You Have Faith?
Do you have faith? A class discussion today entered the realm of faith and a few people asked why we don’t have the faith Jesus did. For example why don’t we heal people? It was an interesting discussion evoking ideas of courage, love, trust, authority, and the very nature of faith. If we have faith in God why can’t we heal the sick? The discussion took on an interesting twist as we all knew that no one in the room had ever tried to heal anyone. Some people claimed it was a bad example, but I think they were just shying away from it. Healing is quite a remarkable miracle, a tangible display of God’s power. You can’t argue with a miracle like that. At the same time what do you do if nothing happens?
This summer I watched this very event unfold on the streets of Chicago. I was sitting on the steps of the Museum of Broadcasting and these three women, dressed like the had just come from church, were leading a crippled man around, praying and singing. There was a woman on each side of the man, supporting him and half dragging him, half helping him to walk down the sidewalk. The third woman followed behind carrying his crutches. The three women prayed, sang, and encouraged the man to straighten up and walk. The whole time he had this bewildered look on his face, as if he couldn’t believe how crazy these women were–but at the time he had a touch of hope in his face. A tiny glimmer of hope that these Bible quoting women could actually heal him. You could tell he didn’t expect it to happen, but if it did, he would gladly take the help.
A few hours later as I headed back to the train I passed that man on the sidewalk. He was still struggling along with his crutches, and the three church ladies were no where to be found. I don’t quite understand the point of their action. They tried to heal him, and failed. Perhaps they didn’t have enough faith. Perhaps the crippled man lacked faith. Perhaps God simply didn’t want to heal this man. But one thing I do know, those women had a lot more faith than I ever have, and probably ever will.
Christian Movies
Today in my film class after watching three months worth of Hollywood films we turned to a film put out by a Christian movie company. To say the least, it perfectly fit the stereotype of the substandard Christian version of whatever is popular in mainstream culture. The acting was weak, the dialogue was laughable, and the plot was mediocre at best. For what it was the actual filming and editing was decent. It had the look of a made-for-TV movie.
Fenwick Northrop
Fenwick Northrop walked calmly down the sidewalk, kicking stones as he headed home. It was approaching 1 a.m., and Fenwick was returning to his dorm just before visitation hours ended and he would have had to leave his girl friend’s place. It was a school rule that nobody particularly cared for, but most grudgingly followed. It was most annoying when you tried to watch a late night movie but had to segregate genders come 1 a.m.
Bookstores Like Libraries
Tonight I noticed that a large section of the populous doesn’t understand my ideals. I’m working on a paper for one of my graphic design classes and I’ve been having some difficulty finding information. I tracked down a new book online that looked like it would be helpful, and found a bookstore that carried the book. I went to the bookstore, got the book, and sat down with my notebook to read the opening pages. The coffee shop area of the bookstore I was sitting in was crowded with forty-somethings. A forty-something band was playing in the corner. There wasn’t a person under thirty in sight, besides me and my fiance. As I copied notes from this book I could feel every eye in the place looking over me disapprovingly. Apparently I’m supposed to buy the $75 book for four pages worth of information. Everyone else in that section of the store had a book they were reading–of course they intended to purchase the book when they got up to leave. I returned my $75 book to the front desk where they had held it on reserve for me. A large section of the populous doesn’t understand this cheap college student mentality. If I had the money I’d buy all sorts of books. But I don’t, so pardon me while I browse the shelves and copy down a few notes. Bookstores should be more like libraries. You can take the book home and read it, but you don’t have to keep it.
I Don’t Have the Answers
The April mist sinks to the ground forming tiny dots on the glass, asking why I’m still awake. Contemplating this and considering that, seeing myself with righteous eyes and wondering how I can change the world with my own two hands. Or I could just let them all go, the heathens–a lost cause. But truly it’s a wonder that I’m not the lost cause. Perhaps I am. Perhaps God has given up on me long ago, leaving me to wallow in my own arrogant pride.
I like to think I have the answers. I put up this front, this face fixed in thought, the furled brow and the hand stroking the chin. I’ll raise an eyebrow when I see you stumbling down a path I’ve been down. I know where it goes and someday you’ll undoubtedly come to my conclusion. Until then I’ll just nod and smile and let experience teach you. I’m so smart. But if you really push me, push each thought and action, you’ll see I’m just as hollow as you. If you really push me I’ll cave in, admit I’m not that smart, and throw up my arms in righteous surrender. I may be wrong, but I know when to admit I’m wrong, thus I save face and don’t look quite as foolish as I am.
We like to think we have Jesus all figured out. We like to think ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ was such a simple and easy test. But we really don’t have a clue. We’re as lost as the Pharisees. And when I point this out I’m just as lost. I’m secretly hoping you won’t realize that one of the tables Jesus overturned was mine. You see I was in the bathroom when he came through, saving face once again. We look at Judas and see a man thoroughly given to Satan. That’s what we like to think. But really you are Judas. I am Judas. We kiss the face of Christ, and then walk away. At least Judas realized what he had done and dropped the act. What we do if grace found Judas before the rope? Wouldn’t that be a skeleton in our closet? The grace of God is something I’ll never understand. He would have wrapped his arms around Judas and laughed. Tears would well up in his eyes and he would have thrown his head back shouting to anyone who would hear, “My son has come home.”
That grace is mine as well. Christ wraps his arms around this self-righteous soul and his tears wash it all away.
Stealing Isn’t New
In one of my classes today we were discussing the demise of the author and the internet was drawing heavy flak. In modern literary theory the work has become more important that the author who wrote the work, and such ideas are being reflected in all of society, and especially the internet. In business collaboration is encouraged, making it impossible to give individual credit. On the internet personal property is becoming more and more public as ideas are “borrowed” and many people fear out right robbery. Being a web page editor I felt obliged to defend the internet. After all, it’s not the internet’s fault that people are crooked.
Of course the whole discussion wasn’t simply an attack on the internet. But what I did come away with is an understanding of how the internet has changed our ability to break the law. If someone is going to steal copyrighted work, they’re going to steal copyrighted work. In the pre-internet days that meant photocopying a magazine article or simply retyping it yourself, or making a cassette of your friend’s record, tape, or CD. Now with the internet we have massive information deliverable instantaneously. Hence it’s easy to steal written work, and more usefully, recorded songs. Look at the proliferation of mp3’s and the fuss it has every major recording company in. Trading songs without buying the CD isn’t anything new. Bootleg tapes have been around since tapes were invented. Mp3’s have just enabled people to get the exact songs they want faster, easier, and cheaper. The internet hasn’t brought about any new disrespect for personal work, it has simply allowed that disregard for the author to magnify itself.
People complain about the internet being such a threat to copyrights and an individual’s work. But we’re not dealing with anything new. We’re dealing with plain and simple human ethics, the same thing we’ve been dealing with since the apple.