Parts 2 and 3 of my failure of a storyboard...I imagine they will take some explaining, but I'll let you try and figure it out first. Haha.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Comic Relief Take 2, Part 2
Parts 2 and 3 of my failure of a storyboard...I imagine they will take some explaining, but I'll let you try and figure it out first. Haha.
Repetition
(or, another scatterbrained attempt to convey how amazed by the Gospel I am - by God's grace, of course.)
In our culture today, it's all about the newest, best thing. Music artists are constantly putting out new catchier music. Movie producers are always releasing new edgier, scarier movies. Cell phone companies are competing to create the new fastest, slimmest, most poweful phone.
Why the constant change? I think it's because consumers get bored. We live in an age of ADD. If things aren't easy to understand or exciting enough to hold our attention, forget it. And when you see the same movie more than twice, read the same book more than once, use the same phone for more than six months, or listen to the same song more than three times, it starts becoming unbearably repetitive. Like a joke you already know the punch line of - predictable and totally anticlimactic. Consumers need something new to amaze them, shock them, repulse them, terrify them, enthrall them, or immerse them so that they keep buying into new things. There always has to be something better so that it can break through the ever-toughening shell of desensitization and boredom in order to interest us in itself.
But does the short attention span of our society apply in the Christian realm too? In my personal experience it does. If you hear a story told the exact same way enough times, it gets boring. It ceases to impact you or elicit any sort of response. "Preach the gospel to yourself daily" sounds like a good idea in theory, but after a while, when it becomes a simple, emotionless "Jesus died to save me," there isn't a whole lot of power in it. Which isn't the gospel's fault, but
mine. (Yeah, I'm talking about me now.)
Thankfully, unlike the culture, which seems to be running out of ideas, God is never at a loss for ways to bring us back to the cross and reconvict our hearts of the magnitude of the sacrifice it represents. I think that's one of the reasons there are so many books of the Bible that contain the Gospel, or at least references to it or prophesies about it - so we don't hear the exact same thing over and over again. Then there's music that contains the gospel message, different pastors who each present it in a different way, and people in our lives who have different (and often better) views on various areas of life than we do.
When I was stuck in a rut in terms of my appreciation for the gospel, God brought me back to a place of awe through worship, messages, and meaningful conversations with people.
But perhaps the main reason that the gospel never stays uninteresting long enough for the Christian belief system to die off is that by God's grace we are continuously changing! When you watch a movie, no matter how many times you watch the end, it will always be the same. But the ending of the lives of those who are saved already changed - we who were once condemned to death have now been brought back to life! While Christ's death is a finished work, the work that begins in our lives when we believe in Him never finishes this side of heaven. We can't stop being impacted by the gospel because the Holy Spirit will continue to change us as long as we allow Him to - not into people who are more calloused and immune to the message of redemption,
but into people who are more open and receptive to it.
All this ridiculously long confusing rambly post is to say, the gospel is and always will be way better than anything this culture has to offer. Even when it seems like we've grown bored of it, God is not so limited in His resources that He can't make it come alive to us again, even more vividly than before. I have experienced His grace in this way personally, and I am grateful beyond words that He cares enough to humble me and lead me back to a place of surrender time and again.
The end.
In our culture today, it's all about the newest, best thing. Music artists are constantly putting out new catchier music. Movie producers are always releasing new edgier, scarier movies. Cell phone companies are competing to create the new fastest, slimmest, most poweful phone.
Why the constant change? I think it's because consumers get bored. We live in an age of ADD. If things aren't easy to understand or exciting enough to hold our attention, forget it. And when you see the same movie more than twice, read the same book more than once, use the same phone for more than six months, or listen to the same song more than three times, it starts becoming unbearably repetitive. Like a joke you already know the punch line of - predictable and totally anticlimactic. Consumers need something new to amaze them, shock them, repulse them, terrify them, enthrall them, or immerse them so that they keep buying into new things. There always has to be something better so that it can break through the ever-toughening shell of desensitization and boredom in order to interest us in itself.
But does the short attention span of our society apply in the Christian realm too? In my personal experience it does. If you hear a story told the exact same way enough times, it gets boring. It ceases to impact you or elicit any sort of response. "Preach the gospel to yourself daily" sounds like a good idea in theory, but after a while, when it becomes a simple, emotionless "Jesus died to save me," there isn't a whole lot of power in it. Which isn't the gospel's fault, but
mine. (Yeah, I'm talking about me now.)
Thankfully, unlike the culture, which seems to be running out of ideas, God is never at a loss for ways to bring us back to the cross and reconvict our hearts of the magnitude of the sacrifice it represents. I think that's one of the reasons there are so many books of the Bible that contain the Gospel, or at least references to it or prophesies about it - so we don't hear the exact same thing over and over again. Then there's music that contains the gospel message, different pastors who each present it in a different way, and people in our lives who have different (and often better) views on various areas of life than we do.
When I was stuck in a rut in terms of my appreciation for the gospel, God brought me back to a place of awe through worship, messages, and meaningful conversations with people.
But perhaps the main reason that the gospel never stays uninteresting long enough for the Christian belief system to die off is that by God's grace we are continuously changing! When you watch a movie, no matter how many times you watch the end, it will always be the same. But the ending of the lives of those who are saved already changed - we who were once condemned to death have now been brought back to life! While Christ's death is a finished work, the work that begins in our lives when we believe in Him never finishes this side of heaven. We can't stop being impacted by the gospel because the Holy Spirit will continue to change us as long as we allow Him to - not into people who are more calloused and immune to the message of redemption,
but into people who are more open and receptive to it.
All this ridiculously long confusing rambly post is to say, the gospel is and always will be way better than anything this culture has to offer. Even when it seems like we've grown bored of it, God is not so limited in His resources that He can't make it come alive to us again, even more vividly than before. I have experienced His grace in this way personally, and I am grateful beyond words that He cares enough to humble me and lead me back to a place of surrender time and again.
The end.
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