Saturday, October 2, 2010

The Little God Inside Our Heads.


On a church sign near where I work it reads " Like Coca Cola, God is the real thing."




Last night my friend Whitney stopped by. We stood staring at the black curtain of the new October sky and the thousands if not tens of thousands of stars that were visible in our little corridor of space. We stood in silent awe, amateur astronomers,
drinking in the majesty of creation.

Whitney spoke first. She asked if I'd seen the man and the woman walking down Hattiesburg's main drag carrying the large wooden crosses. I said I had. She asked in a somewhat leading tone what I thought. As is my particular idiosyncrasy, I asked If she really wanted the truth. Which my friends know means I have a strong opinion on a subject. She smiled. I smiled. And then she answered her own question, insightfully so. She said it kinda makes the cross and the sacrifice of Jesus small.

Yeah. Real small. Soft drink slogan kinda small.

Another friend, Laurel, has a quote from an As Cities Burn song on her Facebook page. "I think our God isn't God if He fits inside our heads" it says.

I tend to agree.

We live in a world desperate for something real. Something more than a slogan, more than a soft drink. Something, or someone that can save us from ourselves, from this path of destruction we're blindly ambling down. The church has that something, knows that someone, and yet we reduce it and Him, to sloganeering, second rate plagiarism, and a bland, watered down hipsterism that the world sees right through it. What if instead of wooden crosses we carried our cross like scripture dictates of Christ's disciples, by dying to our old nature and living the new life by the Spirit? What if instead of the symbols of things we lived those things? Isn't this why we have been warned against idols? Because the symbol of a thing becomes that thing, at least in as much as it becomes small, so easy to fit inside our heads.

What if instead of offering the world a Coke-sized God (and a smile) we offered them the One who created the universe, holds it in His hands, who knows every star by name. What if instead of a soft drink slogan we gave them the Living Water from which no one ever thirsts again.

So for Whitney who said, "I don't even like Coke." Let's buy us a bucketful of those letters and do some vigilante church sign editing....


And for Laurel who is the only person I've ever met who loves the sky as much as me, and for anyone else out there, may God grow larger to you every day and yet ever closer still.



17 comments:

  1. I miss Colorado. I felt so small there. Even when I stand at the ocean, I still know the idols are just behind me. But when I stand on the bluffs in Colorado and look toward the sunset over the mountains, I am in awe of my God. There's nothing like a Rocky Mountain sunset to help me catch a glimpse of how large my God is

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  2. "...I know the idols are just behind me." Wow. Thank you Lala...

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  3. (http://alongtheemmausroad.blogspot.com/2010/10/surrounded-by-idols.html)

    I just saw a sunset over the mountains west of Salt Lake City, and it almost felt like Colorado again.

    btw, my name is Annabelle (aka Lala), nice to meet you ;)

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  4. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance Annabelle. So nice to meet a fellow traveler who is weary of the shiny shallow things of this world and who sees her Creator right where He meant Himself to be seen. And FYI...I do so love the mountains. Its a pine infested flatland here in Mississippi...

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  5. I have only been to MS once--Biloxi. Thankfully it was November and the weather was tolerable ( I hate humidity and heat--even coastal SoCal is miserable to me). I saw such beauty in the sky at sunrise. Everything was destroyed (it was just after Katrina), but it was like seeing one of God's graces in the midst of our mess. Despite the destruction, he still instils beauty.

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  6. Yeah...the coast is beautiful...kept me sane during high school. And Katrina was horrible but I don't lament the fact that it threw some of the Casinos into the ocean and restored the sea's and the suns intimate relationship. What were you doing there?

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  7. my youth group went with Samaritan's Purse to help people out. we just gutted houses for a few days. It was amazing--and so much fun to knock out walls and ceilings. I even had a nail go into my foot!

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  8. Awesome! Loooooove Samaritan's purse. Well on behalf of all of Mississippi, at least those that will allow me to speak on their behalf...thank you for braving rusty nails to set things right down here!

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  9. lol! it was my pleasure. I am pretty impressed by the nail. I had one go into my bare foot when I was 10 or so, but this one went through the thick soles of my steel-toed work boots!

    SP is pretty cool. I've had no other involvement with them, but I still recommend them to people. at the moment, I support financially just one charity--Compassion. But I have been finding so many cool blogs (such as kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com) and I love to spread the word about what other people are doing for God's kids

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  10. Yeah...the kids are everything to me...I gotta do more...gotta rescue them...thank you for spreading the word for them....for being a voice for the voiceless....

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  11. I love children. I wish I knew more what I can do. I am not content with just sending off some money and occasional letters. I really need to be more diligent about praying for them, praying that God would show where I need to be, where I can do more. My dream is to become a foster parent in CO.

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  12. Annabelle, that sounds awesome. Foster parenting is an amazing calling. There are so many transient youth that need loved as they wander through. And you make Colorado sound ever more lovely.

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  13. I dream day and night of getting back there. I am waiting for God to invite me back, and trying to keep from growing roots out in this hell-hole of hedonism.

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  14. I just read your new post on your blog. I feel the same way Annabelle. I hope you can get there soon. I know I am longing for less of this place..."hell-hole of hedonism".

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  15. though I know these attitudes and ways are found anywhere and everywhere, California just feels so dead to me. How long have you been in MS?

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  16. Yeah...it's everywhere...Been here since highschool. Its not so dead here but fast asleep...

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  17. yeah, I live in an area FULL of Calvary Chapels (great churches) yet not enough that the tone of OC is changed. I go to a great church--small but full of people who love Christ. . .still Sundays are just a small portion of my week--all other days I am surrounded by people who worship their money.

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