Scrapes and Scars... And stories

“In my personal struggle to make a living, I’ve found that true success has very little to do with income or comfort. In fact, it seems to me that inconvenience, hardship and discomfort are my best teachers. It’s as though these horrible, wonderful moments where I realize my own limitations are almost exclusively the only ones that matter. So when I’m brave enough, I chase these awkward moments down. I write songs about them. I put my scattered thoughts online. Heck, I even seek therapy from time to time. Love, dreams, confessions, God, women — these are dreadful, awe-inspiring mysteries to me. They put a funny taste in my mouth. They give me scrapes and scars. And stories.” 

-Jon Foreman-

1 Timothy 1:5

we are puddles.

... imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in - an interesting hole I find myself in - fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!' This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it's still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything's going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise.  

 

-Douglas Adams-

on Idol, Colton Dixon, and Everything.

Oh. American Idol.

American Idol is a family event in my house. Everyone in my family loves music and, for the most part, have a pretty good ear for it. (It’s my dad and my sister, Becca who are incredibly talented. Expect to see a youtube channel and an album from Becca in a few years. Though I’m all right on my ukulele ;) )

But I have to admit, there were a few seasons when I was addicted.

Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard. (CLAY AIKEN and not ashamed.)

Carrie Underwood and Bo Bice. (Tie.)

David Cook and David Archuleta. (Cook.)

Kris Allen and Adam Lambert. (Kris.)

Then when I was in college, I always had a class on Wednesday nights. Then Paula Abdul left (and I was okay with that). But Simon left. And Simon to me was probably half the reason why I watched the show. So I stopped watching.

One night, my family forced me to watch it with them.

This particular week’s theme was Idols picking their Idols.

The first contestant to sing was this stylish skinny guy with a lovely mohawk. (My sister Becca told me that this is the type of guy she sees me with. I think she’s right haha). 

It was Colton Dixon and the song he picked was Everything by Lifehouse.

Colton took it literally, He picked God.

His faith was so apparent. Even from watching it from my couch in my living room, I could feel it. Maybe ‘feel’ is the wrong word, but I could sense it. He lifted his hands and fell to his knees. It was pure worship, on American Idol. The courage, the boldness this boy my age had to do what God had gifted him in was amazing.

As a fellow young Christian artist, it brought me joy.

Everything by Lifehouse also happens to be one of my favorite songs and means a lot to me. I first heard the song before some of the toughest months of my own personal walk with Christ when I was 17 ). It was the summer before my HS senior year when my youth group was planning on doing the skit.  

I could listen to this song for hours. This song was a defining moment for me about what my faith meant. It would remind me of who God is, what He was supposed to be in my life…who I was supposed to be. The lyrics are so powerful and so simple. If you can, just listen to the song.

Find me here,
And speak to me.
I want to feel you,
I need to hear you.
You are the light,
That's leading me,
To the place,
Where I find peace again.

You are the strength,
That keeps me walking.
You are the hope,
That keeps me trusting.
You are the light,
To my soul.
You are my purpose,
You're everything…

…You calm the storms,
And you give me rest.
You hold me in your hands,
You won't let me fall.
You steal my heart,
And you take my breath away.
Would you take me in,
Take me deeper now.

Cause You're all I want,
You're all I need,
You're everything, everything.

And how can I stand here with You,
And not be moved by You?
Would you tell me,
How could it be,
Any better than this?

But one phrase that always jump out to me:

“How can I stand here with You and not be moved by You?”

I haven’t listened to this song in a few years. And to be honest, my own faith has been on the rocks again. So seeing Colton to openly worship in front of the millions of Americans and sing this song… It was amazing.

And this wasn’t just a one time thing. Colton has been so open about Who and What he believes. Just Check his twitter. 

Now his common response about being so open about being a Christian was, “… you know, being a Christian is who I am.  It is a part of me musically.” [ARTICLE]

I understood that, both as an artist and writer and a Christian. It a hard thing to separate those aspects… it’s so entangled at deeper level. Haha, it’s a hard thing to explain. The best way I cant explain it is when my faith suffers, those creative parts suffer exponentially worse.

Sometimes, as humans trying to organize our life, we like to compartmentalize our lives. We like to put our school life in a box. Our family life goes into another box. Work life in another. Even social networks like Facebook and Google+ organize our friends that way.

Then we sometimes put ‘Church’, ‘God’ and ‘Christianity’ in a separate box we take out for Sundays.

I’m not saying we all become crazy partying heathens Monday through Saturday, but we just save going deeper, being more open about God for Sunday and Christmas and Easter. Meanwhile that shouldn’t be.

I know we’ve all heard this before. There are thousands upon thousands of sermons dedicated to this.

And some of you are probably going over your life right now just to make sure that you are not the person I’m talking about. I do the same thing every time I hear this too. You start thinking, "I go to church. I don't hide that I’m a Christian. I volunteer."

But take a moment. I just want this statement to sink in.

How can I stand here with You God and not be moved by You?

God’s Glory.

Think of the Old Testament stories.

Think of Moses and the Burning Bush.

Separating the Red Sea.

The Pillar of Fire and the Pillar of Cloud to guide the Israelites in the desert.

Manna.

The Holy of Holy place in the Tabernacle.

When God held the sun still for Joshua to win a battle.

Oh, and creating the entire universe.

We forget about that, don’t we? How big God is. He’s this infinite thing our brains can barely comprehend. When you do, your brain kind of explodes a bit. Yet we try to put God in some kind of box with our own limits and expectations of Him. If we sing these songs, and we do these events, I act this way, and I pray the right words, then i should be doing what God wants, right?

The funny thing is God really doesn’t fit any box or formula. He’s so much more and we won’t Him be more in our lives. How can we stand by God, even see Him and not be moved by Him?

See, God should be so intimately interwoven into every part of your life, that you can no longer separate the two. John 3:30 says that in order "For Him to increase, I must decrease.”

HE is supposed to be who we are.

Isn’t that the point of being a Christian? It's so simple yet so profound and complex at the same time.

I think Colton was a great reminder to us all that Christ is everything. It is so much more than just religion. It is who we are. It’s our purpose, our Everything.

Young men like Colton Dixon, Tim Tebow, and Jeremy Lin are taking a strong stand for being Christian and being real. I love it.

Unfortunately, Colton was eliminated from American Idol Last night. I have to say America, I’m disappointed. Especially after his pretty awesome take on Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance. Seriously, what the heck?!

Colton, you’ve earned my respect, both as a fellow artist and Christian. I wish you the best and I know this won’t be the last we see of you :)

But, I’ll be fully supporting Phillip Phillips now.

Definitions Part 3: Hipster Christianity (Confessions from a Hipster AND a Christian)

Definitions Part 1: Jesus vs. Religion
Definitions Part 2: What is Christianity? What makes someone or something Christian?

Have you heard this phrase being thrown out? HIPSTER CHRISTIANITY. I hear it ALL THE TIME. Every time I hear it, the meaning changes, most of the time it’s used as a negative and then sometimes, it’s not. It’s a very misunderstood and misused term. AND that annoys me.

Let’s start with defining what a hipster even is. Trust me, I would know. I am a hipster.

A hipster could be identified by wearing v necks, skinny jeans, plaid shirts, an assortment of fedoras, beanies and caps, TOMS/Ked’s, behead hair, tattoos, ray-bans, your grandfather’s sweater and probably shops at thrift stores, American Apparel and/or Urban Outfitters.

Everything hipsters like is obscure and indie. The hipster’s choice of music is music you’ve never heard of before (It’s usually sounds like a mix of shoegaze, dubstep, acoustic, unconventional instruments and electronica. Band names are inspired by their favorite authors like Charles Bukowski, Jack Kerouac, Chuck Pahlanuik or Kurt Vonnegut). Hipsters will like things for ironic or nostalgic purposes (Labrynth, bow ties, fedoras, ect.). And every hipster is a barista, musician, a freelance designer/illustrator, blogger, and film/literary/art critic. Their coffee and teas are always organic and fair trade. They also love to use the font Helvetica Neue for everything.

(And I sadly fit all of these.)

This was my FB default. And sadly, this isn’t me trying at all.

Hipster is an art/fashion trend as well as a life style and culture.

Now normally when I hear the term “Hipster Christianity”, its usually reflecting the current trend in American churches, kind of like the next step of ‘Seeker-Friendly’ and ‘Simple Church’ movement that happened in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. It also reflects the attitude of a ‘younger’ Christians (I use ‘younger’ loosely because it doesn’t reflect just physical age but rather the mentality.) who had grown up in church and are challenging some of the Church’s legalism and conservative ideas.

So I’m want to explain how ‘Hipster Christianity’ is a misunderstood term that can be painted as both a positive and a negative.

THE POSITIVE

It used to describe a movement towards house churches and small groups where a desire of restoration and reformation from the current ways of ‘corporate’ church. There is a certain aesthetic that is very artsy and organic. It is inspired by artists and musicians looking back at our roots in the Acts Churches and our current post-modernism to seek a more living faith after being burnt out.

They hold art shows to raise awareness for community and mission out reaches. The worship is a combination of original songs, deconstructed Hymns, maybe some current worship songs and even some old fashion liturgy.

The ‘Hipster’ part of the term describes the atmosphere of the church rather than reflecting the attitude - which I will talk about in a bit.

(My best example of this is Bloom in Denver, CO. You might have heard of the band Gungor, this is their home church. You should check out their teaching pastor, Andrew Arndt's blog)

THE NEGATIVE

But here are two reasons why being a called a hipster is a negative: hipsters are often viewed as posers and fakes and the hipster attitude.

The hipster will give off the appearance of aloofness and apathy. The hipster is cooler than you. The hipster already did the popular trend before it was ‘mainstream’. When the hipster talks, the tone is condescending.

And it’s really obnoxious.

So let’s address the term Hipster Christianity again. To sum it up, instead of ‘Holier-Than-Thou’, it is now ‘Cooler-than-Thou.’

There is this obsession with ‘the show’ and cultural relevance, to where it becomes the utmost priority. What I’ve also noticed is the Hipster Christian/Cooler-Than-thou lifestyle is that they are okay, if not proud, of drinking. They love to open their ‘worship experience’ (It can’t be called a service anymore, it’s too ‘churchy’). They intentionally slip in swearing sometimes.

They like to say, “If the music is too loud you’re too old.”

“This isn’t your Grandmother’s Church.”

“Don’t worry about whatever sinful thing you are doing. I won’t judge you like a ‘conservative christian’ would.”

It started of with good intentions, trying to reach out and bring people back to church who didn’t like church. But I think we swung the pendulum too far.  We’ve become obsessed with making Jesus ‘hip’ and ‘cool’. It is a purposeful forgetting of the name we bear as Christians. This isn’t Hipster Christianity, it is Shallow Christianity.

And that is when I get concerned.

It’s not the skinny jeans, or the music choice or volume that I’m worried about. All of that is just appearance and preference. It’s when it affects the heart and the leadership of the church develops that arrogant hipster attitude. When that happens, we lose sight of Christ and everything He did for us to even be Christians in the first place. Christianity and church becomes a glorified competition, something for man to better at than his fellow men.

Does that last sentence sound familiar? It goes right back to my first post about Jesus vs. Religion. Christianity isn’t about us, it’s about Him. We put God first instead of getting fixated appearances and competing- both in our own and other Churches.

When we try to change Jesus and Christianity into something cool, it’s like trying to reinvent the wheel using a triangle. It might slide by for minute, but it will get stuck eventually. And what are we trying to improve anyways? Let us look at Jesus for who He is.

I’m going to start if with that He was the best artist and designer ever. Have you looked outside?

Jesus was a radical and loving teacher who spoke the truth with authority.

He was the most humble man, cleaning the very feet of His disciples.

He cared for the widows, the lepers, the whores, the thieves, and the lowest of the low.

He took on the worst death even to just save one of us.

And, not only did He rise from the dead, He conquered it.

And how is any of that not cool?

By trying to make Jesus cool, it’s basically saying that we are embarrassed of Him. And that is wrong.

“Then Jesus told them what they could expect for themselves: "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat—I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? If any of you is embarrassed with me and the way I'm leading you, know that the Son of Man will be far more embarrassed with you when he arrives in all his splendor in company with the Father and the holy angels. This isn't, you realize, pie in the sky... Some who have taken their stand right here are going to see it happen, see with their own eyes the kingdom of God."

Luke 9:24-27 MSG

Genuine

I know this is out of my series and a bit different, but this is just a thought of mine lately.

Anyone who knows me will realize I have an obsession for the truth of things. Authenticity. Genuineness. After you’ve finally warmed me up after hanging out for like about 3 or so months (I’m a bit of an introvert), I will instantly tell you how I honestly think about something and would like to know your honest opinion, nothing more and nothing less.

See for me, with knowing the truth, one has nothing to hide, there are no hidden agendas, no selfish motives, it is but simple truth. And from simple truth is born integrity, honor and character. I can trust in truth because it comes with no surprises. Truth is transparent and genuine. Truth can be painful, but it will always set you free.

I am always seeking the truth in things. Constantly searching. I’ve always been, and at this point, always will. Once I find the truth, I have a need to share it because everyone deserves the truth. I am a rebel and this is my cause.

I came to realize this when I was about ten or eleven. Before I was a hipster and loved all things acoustic and obscure, I was a huge fan of bubblegum pop like every other 10-13 yr old girl.

Now let’s go back about ten years (circa 2001) and look at the music then. Both secular music and Contemporary Christian Music had a lovely group of teen bubblegum pop to select from. My parents were very careful about what lyrics I was singing about (and for which I am very grateful for. Really.), so I listen to mostly to CCM such as…

Plus One (saw them a lot in concert. My favorite was Nate.)

Jaci Velasquez

ZoeGirl

Jump5

Joy Williams (please check out The Civil Wars.)

MaryMary (Shackles anyone???)

Raze

Rachel Lampa

Stacie Orrico

True Vibe

These were my Jams till I was about 12 and I discovered Relient K and Switchfoot. And as much as I would love to ramble about how I still know all the words by heart to Plus One’s Written On My Heart (don’t deny it, I’m sure most of you do too), but I did have a point to this post.

Stacie Orrico. Most of you probably remember having a hit back in 2003, ‘(There’s Gotta Be) More To Life’ which was off of her sophomore album and that was pretty much all you knew.

oh. 2000. lipliner and choker necklaces.

Before that, she had two songs that stuck with me (and still do) off of her first album, ‘Don’t Look at Me’ and ‘Genuine’.

What He has is something genuine
Who He is, is someone real
What He gives is something truthful
Its what He has, its Who he is
Its what He gives
And I need Him too.”

-Genuine

Stacie Orrico

It was this song that made me realize that my hunger for pure and simple truth was really a hunger for God alone.

“Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.’”

John 14:6

The only way.

The only truth.

The only life.

We can only cast our eyes toward Jesus, the prize. He is lamp to our feet and the light to our path. When we forget that simple truth, we lose our truth and we get lost. We start wandering into places, following other people down roads we shouldn’t go.

I feel like a lot of us have done exactly that. We get so caught up in the production of Sunday mornings, to make sure we are ‘cool christians’ who are aware of the world, making sure we brand everything in sight, and that we ‘reach’ thousands of people so that we hit this years quota.

With the best of intentions, we’ve somehow lost our way, our truth. Sometimes I wonder what the difference is between ‘the church’ and a non-profit charity.

But I’ll leave you with this.

“Don't look at me if you're looking for perfection
Don't look at me I will only let you down
I'll do my best to point you in the right direction
But don’t look at me
No, no, no
Don't look at me, look at Him…

He's the One who lived a perfect life
He's the One who always gets it right
He's the One and only guiding light, Ohh, yeah
He is everything you want to be
He's the answer to your every need
If you follow Him then you will see He's like no other.”

-Don't Look At Me

Stacie Orrico

I’m 21. I don’t have all the answers.

I’m just a girl who hungrily seeks the Truth.

behavior > 'beliefs'

Definitions Part 2: What is Christianity? What makes something or someone Christian?

“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Ephesians 5:1-2 ESV

My last post was a discussion about Jesus and Religion. I want to continue that with further discussion as to what is Christianity. And to quote C.S. Lewis again, “For God humbled himself to become man, so religion humbled itself to become Christianity.” Now this quote really caught my attention. The idea that religion humbled itself to become Christianity just resonated within me.

One can write many books on this topic, so I will try my best to do it in but a few short paragraphs and still come up with a justifying answer.

So what makes someone or something Christian?

Is it voting Republican?

Is it being prolife?

Is it going to church every Sunday?

Is it reciting a prayer?

Is it a genre of music?

Is it a religion?

Is it a worldview?

Is it a list of rules?

When we think of ‘Christian’ we think of it in two ways, as a religion and as a type of label. And I’ve notice, we love trying to clarify and reform that label.

“I’m not a Christian, I’m a Christ Follower.” (Which is just saying the same exact thing.)

Sometimes we get so fixated on the label, that the label itself will lose all of its meaning. The label becomes dead. My best example of when a label loses its meaning and purpose is with Religion. Then labels become weapons to throw at and divide people.

We are not labels, we are more than just mere words. We are souls.

When I was in high school, my nickname was Jesus. The nickname was a weird combination of people being aware of what I believed in and my long hair. At first, I couldn’t tell if people were making fun of me, but then I realized it was like a term of endearment and an acknowledged statement of who I was. And having Jesus as my nickname was a pretty good reminder of who and what I represented.

When we describe Christians, oftentimes we are called the Salt of the Earth, the Light of the World, a City on a Hill. We just hear the words but not the meaning anymore or it was never really explained as to what that means.

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that the may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Matt 5:13-16 ESV

When salt loses its saltiness, it is useless.

When a label loses its purpose, it is useless. Even if that label is Christian.

We are supposed to be a light in this world, to stand up like a light upon a light stand, a city on a hill.

So what is my answer as to what makes someone or something Christian?

It’s a choice. It’s a daily choice to…

To make God bigger in my life. I must decrease so He may increase (John 3:30)

To love God with all my heart, mind and soul, and to love my neighbor (Matt 22:37-40).

To love my enemies (Matthew 5:43-47)

To die to my selfish ambitions and give all my life away. To be a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2)

To uphold the law (Romans 3:31)

When this change happens in your heart and in your mind, (Ephesians 4:22) and it will directly change how you live.

“But the aim of our instruction is love the comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith…Now we know that the law is good, if one uses is legitimately.”

1 Timothy 1:5, 8 ESV

If we are to ‘reclaim’ religion, we have to acknowledge the wrongs that have been selfishly committed for the sake of ‘christian religion’. The only we can do that is to humble ourselves, confess our wrongs, be legitimately sorry about it, and do something to change.

But, if I had to pick a ‘label’, I want to go back to the beginning. I think this is the one that best sums up the miracle, the love He has for us and the responsibility we have:

Image Bearer

“So God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created them.”

Genesis 1:27a ESV

But Here's another label that I hear tossed around a lot: 
HIPSTER CHRISTIANITY. 

I hear it as a positive thing, as an insult but never in the same way. What do you think it means?

need to be really bothered once in a while

“We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?” 

 Ray Bradbury

Definitions Part 1: Jesus vs Religion

Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes and musters before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and the loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

James 1:26,27 MSG

So this video had taken over my Facebook newsfeed the other week. It went viral. Everyone was reposting. And after watching it myself, I reposted it because I understood and agreed with the poet, Jefferson Bethke. Then the next week, the Christian blogosphere went crazy. Suddenly everyone was freaking out over how illogical, condescending, inaccurate, and unchristian this video was. I watched it again with a more critical eye, and I think many of us are missing Bethke’s point.

When I was in high school and people would find out I was a Christian, the conversation would go something like this:

“Oh, so you’re religious?”

I would say something like this, probably rolling my eyes at this point. “NO. It’s more than that just religion. Its more than just something I do.”

I have always hated that term. Always. To me, it meant two things, (1) doing something superstitiously in hopes of saving my own soul and (2) those who showed off their religion like one who flaunted his knowledge to make you feel stupid, one who overly demonstrates his power just to make you feel worthless, or one who shows his opulence to make you feel poor, to put it simply, religious pride. Either way, ‘religion’ seems to always have man at its center.

Looking at history, religion has a terrible track record with the Crusades, the Inquisition, and even the current war of terrorism. Religion has developed many negative connotations to it, despite the actual definition of it (literal definition). Man using ‘religion’ to accomplish his own personal goals. What a perversion of what we are supposed to be? We can’t keep sweeping this under the rug anymore.

In the video Bethke is referring to the modern day Sadducees and Pharisees. Let me make it a bit more personal, more post-modern for you. When I say religion, I think we can expand that to church pride. The men who pride themselves on how good they were at the law, at church, than what the law/church was supposed to be, and condemning those who could not do it as good as they did. The elite, the self-righteous, the hypocrites.

Religion has become focused on how man can save himself. It has become a selfish thing. There is nothing real, no authentic faith or genuine conviction. It was all about how could I make my own name better, how could use this for my own glory. As Bethke, says it’s become this list of chores, a façade, behavior modification. Religion has become a mask to hide behind and to judge others from. And it’s this type of religion is bondage and makes many into slaves.

Religion could be dressed up so close to the truth, that we sometimes don’t even realize how blind we are to the real truth.

 Before we jump to conclusions about how terrible this video is, take one second and think. Are you upset because you are personally offended and sought to defend yourself? Or can you take your eyes off yourself and realize the point of this video, that maybe we’re losing sight of the humbling, Christ-centered truth?

"Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good- above all, that we are better than someone else- I think we maybe sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil." 

- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The title of the video is this: that Jesus is GREATER than a religion man created. Instead of you or I trying (and failing Romans 3:23) to save ourselves by being ‘religious’, Jesus saved us already. He abolished the need for man to save himself. Jesus was the fulfillment of the Law. Up until that point, we had to sacrifice animals and perform rituals of cleansing. But when God sent His son as the Ultimate sacrifice. We no longer ‘needed’ the law for that purpose. The curtain was torn. (Matt 27:51)

The rest of the New Testament is spent trying to explain the idea of grace and works go together, hand in hand. Religion, or works, alone does not work and belief alone doesn’t make sense. Both are natural requirements. (James 2:14-26 and Romans 2:12-29, 3:21-26)

“For a God humbled himself to become man, so religion humbled itself to become Christianity.”

 -C.S. Lewis

Letters to Mary Van Deusen

February 5, 1956

So then what is Christianity? What makes someone or something Christian? I would like to know what you think. 

For my thoughts, check out my next post.