The Beholding Life: Blinded by Culture
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.
Instead, fix your attention on God.
You’ll be changed from the inside out.
Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it.
Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity,
God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
—Romans 12, MSG
It was a busy week. I took multiple road trips in a seven day span for the purpose of being with people I love, and it was absolutely worth it. Yet Monday morning found me exhausted, and even though I sensed God’s invitation to rest, I ignored it thinking, “Rest is for weak people. I should not need this much rest. I just need to push ahead and I will be fine.” The remainder of the day was spent in restless, fruitlessly busy, angry distraction. I swore under my breath at the slightest thing, got grumpy at Drew for trying to help me feel better, and opened the freezer door multiple times for something to fill the gnawing anxiety in me. Honestly it was if I was in a frantic cartoon with a gleeful little red devil on my shoulder, the angel having been clubbed to death and blown up by dynamite. Mostly, I felt shame over being wholly unproductive as the wheels of my mind spun with my to-do list that simply could not wait until tomorrow. How was I going to write about being blinded by culture when I had to leave the next day for yet another road trip?
When I discovered a perspiring glass jar of defrosted black beans next to the coffee grounds in my kitchen cabinet at 9 p.m. for the dinner I never made, I finally sensed God’s gentle yet pointed “Ahem.” As I put the jar back in the freezer where it belongs and dearly hoped the mushy beans would be palatable after multiple day-long defrosts, the meaning of that “Ahem” hit me: while fuming about and moodily wondering what was keeping me from being able to sit down and write, I had spent the day blinded by the pace and demands of the world—precisely what I had been planning to write about. Instead of heeding Love’s invitation to step away from the hustle for a while, I had spent my time comparing myself to others online, eating food I didn’t need, feeling anxious about all the progress I wasn’t making, and forcing myself to ignore the fact that my tornado of activity was destructive and leading me nowhere.
In the book of Romans, Paul tells us that true and deep living comes from choosing to pattern our lives after God instead of the world—a life of sacrifice that utterly goes against the grain of culture:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
(Romans 12:1-2a)
After reading that verse ten thousand times since childhood, it occurs to me just now that transformation and renewal are rarely instantaneous. They take time—time that I am rarely willing to give. I want results and solutions now, which only proves that my vision of time has been built upon the values of our Western culture. Paul’s exhortation is not just a sweet suggestion to spare us from sinning too much; it is a life sentence, an invitation to be utterly broken open for the purpose of being made new. This process of habitual surrender hurts, and it takes time, but it is the only way to re-align our vision to God’s.
Before proceeding, it is important to define “culture.” Culture includes art, food, music, traditions, shared values, and much more. I am certainly not denying the beauty and goodness of culture which defines and shapes a people. But along with that goodness, many half-truths are woven in—lies that shape how we see and can become deadly if undetected. We are a people called to live both within culture and outside of culture—in the world but not of it.
In this post, I am exploring the “not of it” part—the parts of our culture we are meant to resist as we faithfully live within it. Here is how I have come to define the dark side of Western culture: The breath-stealing pace at which we are forced to live and work for fear of losing everything, along with the false messages we are fed about our purpose, identity, and what matters most. There is such goodness in our culture, but there is alluring falsity, too. And it is important to know the difference.
So how do we know that we are ascribing to the world’s vision for our lives instead of God’s? Here are some clues.
When you imagine a successful life, what do you see? Does your vision of success involve self-emptying sacrifice, simplicity, and obscurity? Or do you see yourself collecting accolades and money, power and prestige, and making a name for yourself—even in the name of Christ? This is the influence of our culture.
When you have a hard day, a day when you are faced with your own futility and everything seems like an uphill climb, how do you feel about yourself? Do you feel like a failure? Do you feel a sense of guilt and unease if you are not busy? If so, this message is from our Western culture.
Do you ever feel discouraged when you cannot move fast enough to keep up with everyone else and end up comparing yourself to others while slowly drowning your insecurity in food, addiction, distraction, and numbness? Welcome to the twenty-first century.
Does church feel more like a place to be served and entertained rather than a family you are called to love and serve? Do you ever wonder if Jesus intended more for his Body than a weekly gathering that often leaves us emptier than it finds us? Western cultural values have infiltrated our churches, too. The place that was meant to be a safe home for the family of God has become a house of mirrors, reflecting trends instead of truth. No wonder we are so wounded. No wonder many are walking away from church in search of something truer, something with integrity.
We are to be made entirely new, not the same. Jesus said:
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”
(Matthew 5:13)
We stay salty when we recommit ourselves daily to what is true. When we choose rest over relentless productivity, people over progress, obscurity over fame, humility over exaltation and love over fear, we stay salty. Here’s the beautiful thing about salt: it adds flavor. It makes what is good even better. As Christians, we are to be salt for the purpose of adding—not subtracting—flavor and goodness, beauty and truth to the world. Jesus was and is the saltiest person the world has ever known. He transformed the world around him simply by being true to who the Father created him to be. Jesus steadfastly refused to be anything other than this: Beloved. If we want to know what saltiness looks like, we need only look to him—the one who died yet was resurrected, his body transformed from death to life for our renewal of our hearts, souls, and minds. The one who was in the world, yet not of it:
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
(John 1:10)
As the salt of the earth, we were created to infuse our world with the flavor of God. We are also called to be light so that others can see Christ clearly, too:
Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.
(Matthew 5:14-16, MSG)
You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. But we will never shine if we spend our days chasing money and trends, vacations and raises, human approval and false intimacy, success and admiration.
Here’s the thing: the renewal of our minds and transformation of our lives is not that complicated. I believe God actually delights to show us a better, truer way to live. The Truth is a person who loves us, after all. But we must be willing to move at the pace of God instead of our egos. There are burning bushes all around us, but how often do we notice? As poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote,
Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God.
But only he who sees takes off his shoes; the rest sit round and pluck blackberries.
When we find ourselves drowning in our own lives, will we choose to turn aside, to take off our shoes and take a deeper look? Or will we sit around and pluck blackberries, mistaking the miraculous for the mundane?
To close, I’d like to invite you into a simple practice that helps me re-align my vision with God’s so that I might add color and flavor to the world instead of merely blending in with it.
I’m calling it Belief-Lie-Truth because nothing cleverer comes to mind:
What am I believing?
Where is the lie in that?
What is the Truth?
I’ll use an example from the chaotic exercise in futility called “this past Monday.”
1. What I am I believing?
If I do not produce something recognizable today through my own effort, the day will be a waste and I will prove once and for all that I am an abject failure.
2. Where is the lie in that?
I am only as valuable as what I do.
3. What is the Truth?
God delights to give me rest and restore my soul—not because I’ve earned it, but because I am his Beloved.
This practice takes, well, practice. It requires that we slow down, settle our spirits, and wait for Truth to illumine the dark places of our minds. But God welcomes every fumbling step we take towards Love. The next time you experience a vague uneasiness, a dissatisfaction or shame you cannot quite pinpoint, will you join me in stepping aside for a bit and asking Truth to show you the truth?
You are so much more glorious than you know, and the world crackles and shines with the gold of God.
May God gift us the eyes to behold as we are beheld.
Amen.
To Go Deeper: Listen to “There Is a Peace” by Harvest. It is everything true.
You've been tempted and shaken, tested and failed.
You've been so far from Jesus and too close to hell.
Your vision's been clouded by this world's delight,
But I tell you you're not of this world, so stand up and fight.
You’re not of this world, so stand up and fight.