A couple of guys have been hard at work making sure that the lines in the back St. Paul parking lot get repainted. All of our lines need repainting in fact. Lines at our church–lines at our Academy, they could all use a fresh coat. Lines are good. They turn open an patch of asphalt into a parking lot. Lines divide. Lines make boundaries. Lines make parking spots. Parking spots that some people in some places fight over. It's funny how a thin layer of paint on the pavement can turn nothing into something. Something that can be personal (my spot). Something that can be coveted (if it's close enough to the entrance). A thin layer of paint on the pavement makes people–almost universally, realize something: lines define.
–Ish
I'm a Millennial. I'll just accept it–although at first I fought it like the first gulp of Robitussin at the outset of a cold. A Millennial, means I'm about 30 years old or younger. The kids born in the last 15 years–I don't know what they're called. I am told that being a Millennial has permeated every part of my being. That probably has a larger foot in truth, but also a tip-toe in doubtfulness. I am also an old Millennial, and the baby of my family as well. That means I was raised and influenced by older generations in the most formative times of my growing up. Nevertheless, I admit I am a Millennial. And in so doing, I recognize that I grew up in a world of ish. My generation, and especially this being of society we are currently living in is full of ish. It's the freedom of choice. It's the consumerism of our culture. It's the marketing to my generation. Ish is the one of the biggest tell-tale signs of virtues around us. The anthem marketed to my people growing up is that you can be whatever you want to be, do whatever you want to do, and accomplish whatever goal you set before you. And here is the kicker–here is what makes everything different for my people–being whatever you want to be includes...being ish. Be exactly whatever mosaic of a person you want to be. Be what you like. Whatever you like. As much as you like. Leaving out whatever you don't like. But whatever you do–at all costs, be unique. It has made ish people. Conservative-ish, Liberal-ish, Religious-ish, Christian-ish, Traditional-ish, Contemporary-ish...ad infinitum. Dig if you will a picture: My people sitting at Starbucks. We have macbooks glowing while writing notes in a moleskin notebook. We listen to throwback music pumped into our ears from our Quad-core smartphone. We put vintage filters on our Instagram pictures taken with 8 megapixel cameras. And if you are really, really cool you might even be wearing shoes that look like they were dug out of a yard sale 40 years ago, a waxed mustache, the necessarily anachronistic hat, glasses that look like you should be in a control tower in Houston smoking a cigarette and trying to get Apollo 13 back into earth's atmosphere–all while feverishly trying to consummate your WiFi connection. It's ish. It's not new or old. It's not this or that. It's ish. Ish gets to pick and choose. Ish gets to mix and match. Generations, ideologies, doctrines, expectations, fashions, formative narratives, worldviews–all of it, you name it, it's all fair game. So grab your tray, pay the lady, and go nuts–because the buffet is set! My people are ish.
2 Things: First, I am not complaining about ish. I am not complaining about Millennials. I am not complaining about my people. Second, I am not saying this generation is special or unique. We do not stand out. We are not exemplary, or bad, or this or that. There is just the flavor. Every generation has it's own flavor. Ish is just a flavor. Days will continue to come and go. Millennials have come–we are in fact already going. But I do talk about ish for a reason. I am very interested as to what is touted as good, right, honorable, and virtuous by Millennials today. After all my people are the ones already running the show in society. A person as a mosaic is favorable. Picking and choosing things–any thing is favorable. Ish is favorable.
Whateva
All of the above stated has made a nice warm comfy bed for longtime coming and expected guest. The bringing down of lines. What a time to live in for bringing down the lines. Lines that divide. Lines that separate into categories. Lines that define. They are all getting sick and dying. And boy are things moving fast! You better look fast if you want to stay on top of things. Caitlyn Jenner has received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award from ESPN for making the transition from man to woman–Bruce has become Caitlyn. NAACP chapter president Rachel Dolezai has had mixed responses about her identifying as black although she is a white woman. Not everyone has stood behind these individuals in their decisions, but there has been a somewhat positive view surrounding these folks by a lot of voices. There has definitely been a positive view of trailblazing in general. Most importantly these instances have bred conversation. And conversation is the beginning of most everything. "Let us make man in our image..." #trinity
New Lines
New lines are being drawn. Lines that are being born as we speak. Lines conceived in the lust of ish. The lust to pick. The lust to choose. The lust to decide. The lust to self define. The lines are different, but they are visible as ever, definitive as ever; they are as intentional as ever. The new lines are not the old. But they have been born out of the intentional erasing of old. Erase the lines that inhibit choice. Because its all about the choice, all about decision, all about creating your ish.
Here is the truth: God makes people. God makes all kinds of people. They are not the same. He makes men, male. He makes women, female. He makes black people. He makes white people. He makes brown people. He makes all the colors in between (like me half brown / half white). He makes them of same value, same worth, with the same amount of Godly love. But the point is GOD made us. We do not get to pick and choose. "Separate but equal" is not right. We should be together and equal. But being together and equal doesn't mean we have the ability and fluidity to move between the one thing out of our hands–the events surrounding our birth. God is the creator and we are not. And yet the ultimate ish, the highest degree of our human autonomy, the tippy-top of our hubris as human beings is that we can pick and choose those few things that are out of our grasp. It is the last great battle of mankind being their own god–deny the created. Deny the tangible. Deny corporeal truth in front of you. These are the lines that are being erased. *see above Caitlyn Jenner and Rachel Dolezai. The Millennials have made the bed–Gen X, and Boomers can stay the night. You are less of what you are. You are more of what you decide to be. You are more ish – because ish is better. And if you don't believe that people can decide. If you think God made not just who we are, but how we are, for a reason, intentionally, with thought and care that totally surpasses our temporary and small existence–then you have just crossed the line. The new line. The line found at the bottom of the erasure of the old lines.
Crossing the new line is unforgiving. Crossing the new line is unfair. It calls those who believe that God designed partnership for a man and woman–homophobe. Even if there is no phobia or hatred to be found. It calls those who think God made men and women, as such, for a purpose and reason–backwards. Even though they are formed by a book and narrative that is so up-to-date and relevant that it even reveals the future of things yet to happen. #nothingnewunderthesun I never thought being a backwards homophobe would feel like this! It's so not what I expected. Because I don't hate. I am not phobic. Because my Lord Jesus also told me to love everyone (John 13:34-35). Yes, that part is formative too! I reject the line that says I am, what I am not. I know that God has been in the creating business a longer than man has even been on the earth, and a LOT longer than ish seemed so sexy. I know that He is creator and we are creation. I know we do not get to pick, choose, decide, some things. I will not be pigeon-holed. I reject the line that makes me a backwards homophobe. And if you interpret God's Word the same way–if you still love everybody God has made, because it is God who made them–you should reject that line too!
Some lines are legitimate, and some aren't. And deciding the lines that need to be erased–well that's the hard job. I'm glad it's not my job. But isn't it all of our jobs? Should the rebel flag come down over South Carolina? In one breath I think yes. In another breath I think I'm not so sure. *sigh* Who gets to define if that flag is the boundary between racism and not racism? Right now I guess it's whoever has the biggest platform. I wish wisdom was a platform.
End of the Line
I am sitting here chuckling to myself. Not lol-ing. But I'm actually having a real human chuckle. (the folks in the office are probably thinking that I am finally losing it). I am remembering that one Sunday I watched a 3 second video clip on repeat for no less than 30 minutes. What a weirdo right? Well, not really. I'm sure plenty guys and gals around the country watched the same thing. The clip was a game defining challenge of whether a player broke the plane of the end zone in a great NFL game. In that game–in that time, that line that marks the beginning of the end zone really matters. That line and what side the player was on, made all the difference. All lines in sports really matter from time to time. But that line really, really matters–frequently. But after that 4th quarter, that line doesn't matter quite as much. And later that day, that line mattered even less. And at the end of the season, that line mattered even less. And when that field in that stadium was transformed into a stage for a concert, that line mattered not-at-all. It was torn up, erased, removed.
These lines that I have been talking about matter now. Here, now, in this time, on this plane, these lines really do matter. But it will not be so forever. Far transcending the transformation of a football field into a concert stadium, Jesus is coming to transform our...well our everything. Thy Kingdom Come! Jesus come and bring your kingdom with you. Transform our bodies, and lives, and sin, and hate, and love, and our everything else into what only you can imagine it to be! On a new plane, a new stage, the only line that neither you, nor I, nor anybody else could bring down will be erased forever. That is the line that separates us from God. The line put up on that day of rebellion when the creation decided we would do the line drawing around here! The line that went up when we decided we would be our own god. The line that put us–every one of us–on the wrong side of God's presence, and Will, through every breath of our life. Guess what? That line is going. That line is fading. We are at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance and THIS line will not be restored. The closer Jesus draws near the more this hideous lines fades. Jesus is coming. He's closer. Closer than He has ever been before. His return is more imminent than it has ever been. Fade, fade away line. Bring it on Jesus. Thy Kingdom Come!
