Negativity

With all the horrors going on in the world today, it's interesting the things that 'break the internet.'  I'm not fond of the phrase, 'breaking the internet,' like things going viral which, up to last week, was a BBC correspondent in Korea whose children decided to crash the interview.  The social media sphere did its best to make this man and his family the most famous people in the world for a little while and as I watched various interviews with him and his family afterwards, the most difficult thing for them was the fact that most people believed that the woman who crashed into the room was his nanny and not his wife.

Racially sensitive, the internet is not.

As I turned on my computer last week expecting the typical regressive articles regarding ways to make the President of the United States look bad (some of which he does himself), I came across what I would say describes the thread that unites all of our current socialized media...

Negativity, or rampant shallowness.

I smacked my head when I read that what was 'breaking the internet' two mornings ago was a trailer for the movie 'Wonderwoman,' and the heartfelt disgust that the character of Wonderwoman, in the editing room, has had her armpits bleached.

Let me write that again:  People were genuinely concerned that the moviemakers bleached her armpits so that any stubble might not be seen on the 'perfect' woman.

Objectification of women should not be trivialized, but for heaven's sake, the first female 'superhero' that Hollywood has come out with since Black Widow (is she a superhero?) is being torn to bits because of underarm hair?  For heaven's sake...

Speaking of heaven's sake, negativity has a way of leeching into almost everything - it has from the beginning of time.  Humans distrust God; humans distrust each other, and so they belittle and tear down because they believe at the same time it will prop them up.  Have you ever been around toxically negative people?  Do you ever stop to wonder how much life and energy is sucked out of you by being around them?  Even though you want to care for them, and support them, there is no black hole in human relationships like negativity.

Take for instance, Nathanael, the disciple.  I'm sure that he was not a constant source of negativity, well, to be honest, I'm not sure because there really isn't that much said about him, but his first words upon discovering Jesus, 'the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote - Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph,' (John 1:45b) were of negativity and disbelief. 

"Nazareth!  Can anything good come from there?"

It wouldn't be the last time Jesus' qualifications are questioned; simply by the town he lived in, negativity enters.  He is the son of a carpenter?  Please.  He has brothers that everyone knows?  I think we're barking up the wrong fig tree.

Philip is not put off, but wipes aside the negativity and the shallowness of the response.  "Come and see!"

In a world that insistently tries to brush Jesus off, like dandruff from a dark blue shirt, we are called not to combat the negative claim but invite them to encounter the Savior firsthand.  "Come and see!" We say with a smile knowing that there is something so incredibly, what's the word, vivid, about Jesus.  Through all of his encounters and connections with people, he stands in stark contrast to the negative world positively charging it with altered understandings and expectations.  Moses may have pointed them to the Law, but the fulfilment of that Law points them gracefully back to God. Immediately, he speaks positively about Nathanael; he combats the preconceived notions by encouraging him.  "Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!"  (John 1:47)

Whether he was telling Nathanael that he was not lying in speaking about Nazareth that way, we don't know, but what Jesus revealed was that he already knew Nathanael immanently and intimately. 

How do you come before Christ in your connection?  Is it one of negativity?  How do you respond to the negativity that surrounds Christianity?  Do you begin to join the chorus of mockers in the call to crucify Christianity, or do you say to those who puff out their chests and say, 'We have moved past religion,'

Come and see!

Not come and read, or come and think, come and pretend...  Come and see the risen Christ in the body of believers who are not a collection of perfection, but a rabble of sinners claimed by the one who sees us standing still under the shade of our own personal fig trees.  Come and see!

Pointing the Other Way

As painful as it is, I have to confess...

I watched a recap of the Academy Awards ceremony.  Guiltily, I watched celebrity after celebrity hear their names called, pretend to be surprised, look shocked and hug the persons near them who were basking in the limelight for a few seconds and then ascend the stairs to the platform of their own self worship.

I don't know why I watched.  If there is anything in the world that I loathe it is groups of people on the 'inside' self congratulating and patting themselves on the back, smiling beautifully and smugly into the camera while some of the world marvels at what they call their 'craft.'

Let's put an honest face on it: these multimillionaires are paid to look beautiful, recite a few lines which they have the opportunity to redo and retake for as many times as needed, and then walk the red carpet to sit together at the beginning of every year to watch their fellow 'crafters' use the stage as their platform to either make fun of the current presidency, or to stroke their own egos.

And yet I watch.  Odd, isn't it?

I wish I was paid to look beautiful, could have as many retakes as I needed with my job, receive congratulations and adoration every year and then receive my thirty-eight million dollar paycheck in the mail.

Who am I kidding, though.  I'm not particularly beautiful by Hollywood's standards.  I don't get retakes and being a celebrity is not all it's cracked up to be.  There are all sorts of negatives with the kind of popularity that goes with being a great actor or actress:

You're never alone.
It's almost endemic to the community, but divorce is almost assured.
Although the money can buy things, it can't buy peace and it certainly does not buy happiness.
To be a celebrity means one lives one of the fakest lives available.

And strangely, as they mount the steps, as much as I admire their ability to capture an audience's interest, I feel sorry for them.

Does it really pay to be a celebrity?



Now this was John's testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was.  He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, 'I am not the Messiah.'

John 1:19,20

Here was John's opportunity to be the greatest at his craft.  Because of his celebrity status, people were flocking from Jerusalem to see if he was the Messiah - the one who would save them all.  Imagine how much more popular John would be, how many likes he would have, how many hits his cavesite would get...

After the leaders pressed him, "Who are you?  Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us.  What do you say about yourself?'  John recognizes two things about himself - maybe he's been thinking about them awhile, or maybe the Spirit is speaking through him:

1.  He is a spokesperson - one who speaks in a desolate place to people who are desperate for any kind of connection with God.  His voice not only prepares the way for the Lord, but it guides the people to him.

2.  He knows his place in perspective.  Illusions (or delusions) of grandeur have no place and carry no value for him.  The one who is coming is so great that John, even though he has a legion of people streaming out to meet him in the desert, cannot even touch Jesus' feet.

In essence, with all his force, John points the leaders in another direction.  He is connecting them with someone who is already in their midst.  Not a celebrity, but a Savior. 

Who are the people in your life who, in great humility, point away from themselves toward the Savior?

Who are the 'celebrities' in your life who consistently speak the truth and straighten the paths for others?

The hardest question: "What do you say about yourself?  Who are you in the kingdom?"