Starting Line Christianity

With the Christmas season grows nearer and nearer (I still count Thanksgiving as not Christmas season), it seems that more Christian pop culture posts are rolling down my Facebook feed. If you have been on Facebook lately, you are no stranger to the number of Christian blog posts about celebrities. The aim of these Christian posts is to applaud various public figures for being Christian. They aren't being praised for being martyrs, bringing the good news to the lost, or loving extravagantly, but for simply being Christian.

Shia Lebouf was reported to have converted to Christianity, and it seemed that over night, we as Christians went from not caring about the actor to backing him because of his newfound Christianity. Tim Tebow is no stranger to the Christian limelight, being applauded frequently for simply praying during games. Even Matthew McConaughey recently received praise! For what, one might ask? Simply for mentioning God and getting married to a woman.

All of these things are good, don't get me wrong. Coming to know Christ, getting married, and praying (even if it is for less than a second while everyone can see you) are all things that I hope every Christian would be comfortable with. But are we really so quick to applaud these people and find them worthy of praise? As a Christian, should this really be so noteworthy? Should we be so freely giving of our support to people for doing essentially nothing? Are we starting to make Christian versions of Kim Kardashian? Celebrities famous for doing NOTHING?!

Articles such as the one about Matthew McConaughey get reposted and retweeted with comments like, "what a good guy" or, "I will look for more of his movies", and "It's really nice to see someone in Hollywood standing up for their faith".  We as a group rally around any such example of the unicorn that is the Hollywood-Christian, offering praise and unwavering support. The moment Huffington post tells us about the next celebrity that also happens to be Christian, we excitedly begin to spread the word! But have we become so desperate to have our views heard that we are willingly to jump on the next bandwagon that has "Christian" plastered to the side of it?Simply declaring our Christianity was never meant to be the act of trailblazing, but rather the precursor to the act of living it out the declaration. John 13:35 names our love as what we will be known by, not our press release.

The Bible takes note of people who turn the traditions of their time on their head. The tales of controversial love in the Bible were not of Jesus saying "Merry Christmas" (I guess Happy Hanukkah) or annoying the Gentiles (the nonbelievers) with his belief in God. Much to the Pharisees' chagrin, they were recordings of Jesus speaking against their misguided actions that valued tradition and religious standing over people. I am sure that the religious authorities of the time would have preferred Jesus to have safely sat on the sidelines voicing who he was rather than actually being the Son of God, but thankfully Jesus had other things (us) on his mind. The Gospels are riddled with the retellings of Jesus' blatant actions for people. He wasn't in it for the popularity, but rather he unapologetically did more than just talk.

Which leads me to what worries me about our fascination with Christian pop culture. Our fixation is becoming problematic. Our scales of importance are quickly tilting towards hugely trivial things, leaving the mountains God made us to move ignored and untouched. Simply put, we are beginning to care about things that God finds LARGELY UNIMPORTANT. Is weather or not the Walmart clerk says "Merry Christmas", the number of professing Christians on that PG-13 action movie, or the number of times a football player unemotionally points to the sky after a touchdown really worth our time and energy?

The world is looking on as we applaud these acts of little to no value, and they are left asking, "what do Christians believe again?" I wonder if it isn't looking like we have a great sense of believing in ourselves more than anything else. Rather than caring for the poor, and getting excited about loving those around us, we are turing out to be no different than those we claim not to be. The difference between Christians and non believers cannot be an exclusive Sunday morning club and a title that we slap in other's faces. But it will be only that if we continue doing nothing in response to Jesus being our savior other than declare our name and our stance.

If the announcement of our existence as a Christian is our first and final step, we are camping out at the starting line.  Our spiritual bones and stamina will waste away due to lack of exercise if we do not stop exerting the least amount of energy needed to fit in among the ranks of other Christians. And frankly, it is a lie to think that we do anything by idly supporting largely skin deep acts of pseudo-Christianity. Simply joining the gang is not what we were meant for, and we are missing out on the chance of a lifetime.

It's true that lackadaisical and safe approaches to Christianity are peaceful and somewhat fulfilling. It feels nice to be able to claim you've figured out something the rest has not. But that sort of approach to living for God eventually accomplishes nothing, because it lacks the one thing that Jesus deemed most important: to love. Love is not sedentary, stoic, or even judgmental. It is not interested in who's who and who is not. Love moves, love reaches out, love gets dirty.  And it's not a "controversial Facebook post" type of dirty, but a "I am going to acknowledge and heal this woman who has been bleeding for twelve years" type of love. A "I am going to stand in the gap for this prostitute" love.

Dont miss out on this adventure. Don't become merely yea or nay sayers. We were made to be the revolutionaries of this day and age. The adventure awaits! God is waiting for us to pick our crosses back up and follow him in order that others might see and come with us. No, it might not be the most popular thing to do, and it might not get circulated on twitter. But to place importance, not on what the world values, but on what God values is to truly enter in to what God made us to do and who he made us to be.