Culture Clash

Most people tend to think that I'm exaggerating when I say that I read anywhere from four to six books at a time. I can remember my friend from Texas A&M, Alexa, wondering how in the world that was even possible. There is just so much great literature out there that I greedily eat up as much as I possibly can. Usually, my consumption focuses on tomes of theology and things like that, but I'll occasionally have an Ian Fleming or Robert Ludlum novel thrown in for some adventure, as well as classics and a few magazines, to boot (not to mention the blogs that I frequent out in the ether). I'm smack dab in the middle of one particular C.S. Lewis classic, right now, as well as Timothy Keller's "The Reason for God," but, spontaneously (I guess because I'm just so "crazy"), I picked up Gary Thomas' latest, "The Beautiful Fight," and began reading.

In Ch.2 of "The Beautiful Fight," Thomas' main focus is on the need to actually experience something when it comes to the Christian life. His sole focus isn't on that one thing, though... he does a pretty good job of describing how, in order to really grow as a Believer, one must have depth in both the experiential side of faith, as well as the intellectual. One particular quote hit me, though, as it was pretty much a punch in the face to the more liberal-leaning "Emergent" trend.

"We cannot compensate for being strangers to God by becoming friends with the culture."

As we see a growing trend of churches and even people who would claim to be Believers or Christ-followers (because the word "Christian" is just such a faux-pas when it comes to reaching people) leaning towards the mentality that "in order to engage culture, we must look like them!" and proceed to delve into the murky depths of a society bound for the bottom, we must remember that the acceptance of that which we know is wrong cannot happen. More and more of us are being inundated with the idea that social activism, politics and all other sorts of outlets are the places for Christians to really "live out their faith." But, more often than not, these same people have no real intimacy with the One they claim to serve.

In order for us to truly make an impact, we must have an intimate relationship with the One who redeemed and saved us in His life, death and resurrection. In that intimacy, the overflow is what carries us to do great things in different sectors of society. Our faith isn't in our political campaigning for the most PC candidate, getting all sorts of body piercings and taking up smoking to get along with a particular culture. Our faith is lived out through the overflow of joy that comes with knowing Christ as Saviour, and letting that joy take hold of every single thing we do.