After my house caved in a few months ago, I got a job as an office administrator. I say that as if I realized I needed better work so I could give my wife a new home, but that's not how it happened. I got the job because a guy saw something in me and offered me the position. I wasn't even looking for it, but then, that's how God blesses people sometimes. Theologians call it "providence".
This post isn't about providence.
I didn't want to confuse anyone when I told you about a startling realization I had as I walked into my office building. It's one of those fancy places with huge windows and glass doorways. I caught a glimpse of myself as I approached the door and thought, "Geez, do I really look like that? Didn't I have a huge beard and limp mohawk earlier this year?"
I sort of felt like a fraud. I'm not a corporate kind of guy. What happened to the fifteen year old kid who sang this song after school?
So this has me thinking about the idea of image versus person. Who I am and what I do doesn't match up to the image many people normally give Christians. I smoke a pipe and drink bourbon and listen to Planes Mistaken For Stars. Those are parts to Isaiah the person. I love Jesus and have given my life to serving him. That is also a part of Isaiah the person. But when people see me shouting on a stage, they might not think of me as the typical Christian. And when people read my weblog or meet me at church, they probably don't picture the dude with a tallboy of PBR singing T Rex on karaoke night.
Does that make me a fraud? Before you decide, let's look at this good idea/bad idea list I made:
1. Having a glass of bourbon and smoking a pipe with other adults, maybe after a meal: Good idea.
2. Drinking/smoking around kids who might already struggle with staying clean and sober: Bad idea.
3. Cranking Mastodon on my turntable: Good idea.
4. Sneaking Mastodon into the pre-service mix on the church iPod: Bad idea.
I don't think of this as hypocrisy. I think of it as a mature sensitivity to the people around me. My co-workers would have a hard time working around a guy who doesn't shower. Clients might not know what to think of the dude at reception with a viking beard. Likewise, there are some people I know who have a hard time with alcohol, rock and roll, my wife in a skirt, and other things I think God made for me to enjoy.
Here's my point. We're taught to consider who we're around in Romans 14:13-23. We're supposed to live in grace and pay attention to our conscience, but still consider how it will affect the people around us.
How do you deal with image vs. person? What do you think about it?
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2 comments:
I don't think it's fraud so much as fulfilling a role. In your professional life, certain things are expected of you, cleanliness, being presentable, etc. Your personal life has some requirements as well, depending on the situation, not because you're pretending to be something else but because the situation calls for it. It's not about you, it's about serving others, even if doing so sometimes makes you want to scream. Sometimes you have to turn off the awesome music that brings you joy so the octogenarian next to you can be more comfortable.
Similarly, you might avoid drinking around a recovering alcoholic out of deference and love for them and their weakness. If someone objects to drinking for no apparent reason, my first impulse is to blow them off, but the loving thing to do would be to simply not drink around them.
I think 1 Corinthians 8 will back me up when I say that we, as Christians, are free to partake of these things provided we do so with thanksgiving to God. (If we can't in good conscience thank God for it, maybe we shouldn't be doing it.) But people differ on what is acceptable and what isn't, which is perfectly fine. But it being perfectly fine really, really bugs some people because they can't stand there not being a hard and fast rule.
Modern Christian prohibitions seem to stem from a fundamental lack of self control. Because drinking can lead to drunkenness, we avoid it entirely (and pass constitutional amendments to get it banned so we won't be tempted.) We boycott certain stations because we can't be trusted to turn the channel. It leads to a kind of black-and-white thinking where anything that can be abused becomes evil, which in turn leads to sitting in an empty room in a monastery instead of participating in the world to bring the light of God to it.
People who see the world in black and white are missing out on so much. They think everything is evil, and sit in a washed out, gray-scale world, unable to see the beautiful colors that God created. The darkness has only black and the monotonous shades of gray; the light has the full spectrum of joy.
If smoking a pipe and enjoying some bourbon with friends brings you joy, take it with thanksgiving. The world needs more joy. It seems to be the most ignored of the nine. Forbearance gets more attention.
Sorry, think I got a bit off topic there. My essaying leads me to weird places sometimes. Thanks for giving me things to think about, I've been sorely missing that lately, as my own woefully neglected blog will attest.
Hey man, you know I don't mind the long comments from you. Spout away.
Maybe one day I'll write a post about how often people identify with each other over things they mutually hate. "The enemy of my enemy (namely reality television) is my friend."
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