a curator of light

Because of some people’s desire for Chicken sandwiches and other people’s desire for controversy, the waring cultural landscape of our nation has been on bright display. 

Don’t worry, this post is not really about that. 

Anyway, because of this a lot of my DC friends have been discussing Christianity. Most of them aren’t religious and few are outspoken atheists. All of them are awesome. And much smarter than me. 

One my friends asked me about being a Christian and if being in DC was difficult for me. I was confused by what he meant. He elaborated:

“ I just mean, Christian culture isn’t here. Its not like the south ya know? The Christian expectation isn’t around.”

And that just broke my heart. Devastated me. 

Not because he was right, but because what he associated me with was a culture. A breed of people. A commitment. An exclusive society. An expectation.

Not Jesus. 

Not why I breathe every day. Not the feeling I get when I commune with Him. Not salvation. Not joy. Not love. Not healing. Not even a religion.

A culture. 

Even as I type this right I now tears are streaming down my face. It hurts me so much.

Because, that is the most frustrating thing to me about what Christianity in America. Especially in the south.

Being a Christian has become all about us. Protecting “our family values”. Making a safe haven for us to huddle against the unbelieving masses. Holding on till we get to heaven. Where we can have all the Chicken sandwiches we want. 

We have our politics, our way of life, our station in life, our money. Our culture. And used Christianity as front to protect them. 

We have decided Mike Huckabee will save our world better than Jesus. If all the people in the America praying that Obama would leave office prayed for the neighbors who are hurting, I would like this place a lot better. 

Not only are we fighting a heavenly battle using worldly avenues, we are simply fighting the wrong battles. 

Chick-fil-a will do just fine. But even if it doesn’t, who cares? Dan Cathy said what he believed. And the world might hate him for that. Thats kinda the deal though right? Why are we freaking out about this? 

Why are we so offended when the world doesn’t like us when instead of loving people like we should, we are blatantly hating them?

Jesus was always hated for what he said. Hated for loving. That was the expectation. He was spit on. He was flogged. He was beaten. He never even got to eat a chicken biscuit. 

But he came to serve, to lose all of his friends. To serve those who hated them. To love those who were broken.  

He gave his kingdom for slavery. 

He never came for a culture. He didn’t die for you to have a great group of Christian friends. He died to set you free. So you in turn could set others free.

But we want to be the ones on top. The ones in the majority. Running the show. The world needs to be run by Christians who play nothing but 104.7 the Fish right? 

The world will never be saved by Christians who make “christian laws”. Nobody gets to heaven that way. Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. 

We need to stop advertising to people because we want more people in the world like us.   We need to love people until there are more people in the world like Him.

Here is the plain truth: If you aren’t willing to even make friends with someone who isn’t a Christian and thinks differently than you, you are not sharing Jesus’ heart for the broken. If being around people who share your Christian culture is more important than the salvation of others, you have a lot of priority issues. 

 You get to be in heaven one day and live with Jesus forever. There are so many beautiful, wonderful, sweet, caring, loving people who are drowning in the darkness of this earth.  they are are begging to know Him. To be healed by Him. To know someone is listening. To have their soul come alive.They are fighting everyday just to keep going.

And instead of fighting for them, we are fighting for our right to have waffle fries.  

Thats not a culture that I want.