I was asked an interesting question on my Tumbler today. It was based on a quote by Buckminster Fuller about utopia. The question is: If you could snap your fingers and create a utopia, what would it look like?
Oddly enough, my first reaction wasn't Jesus! New Jerusalem! Maybe it should have been, as a Christian, but it wasn't. I think my first reaction actually said a lot about me as a person beyond myself as a Christian (or perhaps as the authentic person I am in Christ.)
My initial response was: more art. More beauty. More people doing what they would love and less concern for money. And then I threw in something pithy about making Rupaul President of the US.
But the sentiment is interesting, isn't it? Aren't people hung up on utopia? From zombies to nuclear war to Ray Bradbury to Left Behind (the series) to HG Wells, the idea of utopia has hung on our minds since the fall (and even more clearly dystopia).
Think about it. What does utopia look like for you?
Well, in the case of this blog, I would like to offer this song for consideration:
I Can Only Imagine (MercyMe): http://youtu.be/N_lrrq_opng
This song is all about the idea of heaven as unimaginable and I like this idea. I think we take God for granted. The idea of his holiness and deity has been cast aside with tradition in favor of his softer and more feel good qualities. But we can't forget that God is deity and all goodness, pure light, and...well, its like that scene from the Raiders of the Lost Ark where the Nazis all get face melty.
This song is pretty romantic in its worship of God and our relationship to the divine. It doesn't dwell on streets of gold or whether we're still married as angels or what happens to free will, but it talks about how God is there. How Jesus, the big kahuna of redemption and love, is there and has waited for us to be with him.
I imagine my utopia as art. God imagines his utopia as us with perfect bodies and no sin. What does that tell you? What does that stir in your heart and minds?
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Love Song
Love. Today we talk about love.
Why love?
Because I have just spent the past week watching the Tumblr meltdown over the Klaine box scene.
Translations: Tumblr (social networking site, like blogging only with lots more gifs)
Klaine (Kurt and Blaine, two characters on Glee, two boys in a relationship)
Box scene (A script from the Christmas episode of the 3rd season of Glee that was purchased (and money raised for charity) with the express intent of finding out what was in the box from Blaine to Kurt. It did not disappoint.)
Where does this leave me as a Christian blogger? Perhaps you are expecting certain things. Certain things from Leviticus or Romans. You won’t find them here if you are. Why? Because I haven’t made my mind up, haven’t researched everything regarding the issue and I don’t want to make assumptions for others in their personal walks with Christ.
I will tell you that a whole host of issues comes up with me and Klaine. And the biggest issue is probably the world’s expectation of love.
First, don’t get hung up on all the different types of love found in the bible (Greek words like phileo, agape, etc…). It’s distracting, lets just go with “love” as a general term and go from there.
Love to a Klaine fan means this speech:
“To always love you. To defend you even if I know you’re wrong. To surprise you. To always pick up your call no matter what I’m doing. To bake you cookies at least twice a year and to kiss you whenever and wherever you want. Mostly to make sure that you always remember how perfectly imperfect you are.”
How can you not like what he says? A bunch of Klainites on tumblr have equated these words to a marriage vow and in many ways I agree. I love the romantic feel (and free cookies!) and the sentiment of embracing imperfections. Its refreshing in so many ways and so poetic and so everlasting.
And it’s love. It’s romance. But is it real?
God proclaimed his love for us by sending His son to die on a cross for us so that we might all be saved.
New casting crowns asks about that love and how far it takes sin away from us. Response: From east to west.
http://youtu.be/GjvOpff_ReE
For me, the trouble is rectifying the two because if another guy said something like what Blaine said to Kurt, I can’t imagine that I would have a problem with it. Truth is, I’m hungry for someone to say that to me in many ways.
http://youtu.be/bKcgJzj6WBU
And I’m hungry for God. It’s like the god things two weeks back- we crave the thing which satisfies but we create something that won’t sustain us permanently just to satiate the temporary pain. The little gods of marriage vows over loving God and the day to day that really looks like.
So love.
Some might say love is in your heart and you’re a prisoner to it.
Some might say that God is love and should be all sustaining.
Some might say to love who you want as long as I don’t have to see it.
Some might say that love has no gender.
Have we made love into our own god? Have we taken the promise of love and bowed to it? Watching Klaine and reading fan fiction makes me think that at least my generation and the one beneath us has. The biggest trouble is not knowing how, when, or why you did it.
Klaine seems natural sometimes and silly sometimes and vain sometimes but it doesn’t seem wrong. Is it wrong though? Do I live in a Roman account or from Levitical standards at face value or do I take into account that there was a commentary that said homosexuality was only a sin for prostitutes and pimps that engaged in it?
More questions than answers.
Especially if you want God more than anything.
Why love?
Because I have just spent the past week watching the Tumblr meltdown over the Klaine box scene.
Translations: Tumblr (social networking site, like blogging only with lots more gifs)
Klaine (Kurt and Blaine, two characters on Glee, two boys in a relationship)
Box scene (A script from the Christmas episode of the 3rd season of Glee that was purchased (and money raised for charity) with the express intent of finding out what was in the box from Blaine to Kurt. It did not disappoint.)
Where does this leave me as a Christian blogger? Perhaps you are expecting certain things. Certain things from Leviticus or Romans. You won’t find them here if you are. Why? Because I haven’t made my mind up, haven’t researched everything regarding the issue and I don’t want to make assumptions for others in their personal walks with Christ.
I will tell you that a whole host of issues comes up with me and Klaine. And the biggest issue is probably the world’s expectation of love.
First, don’t get hung up on all the different types of love found in the bible (Greek words like phileo, agape, etc…). It’s distracting, lets just go with “love” as a general term and go from there.
Love to a Klaine fan means this speech:
“To always love you. To defend you even if I know you’re wrong. To surprise you. To always pick up your call no matter what I’m doing. To bake you cookies at least twice a year and to kiss you whenever and wherever you want. Mostly to make sure that you always remember how perfectly imperfect you are.”
How can you not like what he says? A bunch of Klainites on tumblr have equated these words to a marriage vow and in many ways I agree. I love the romantic feel (and free cookies!) and the sentiment of embracing imperfections. Its refreshing in so many ways and so poetic and so everlasting.
And it’s love. It’s romance. But is it real?
God proclaimed his love for us by sending His son to die on a cross for us so that we might all be saved.
New casting crowns asks about that love and how far it takes sin away from us. Response: From east to west.
http://youtu.be/GjvOpff_ReE
For me, the trouble is rectifying the two because if another guy said something like what Blaine said to Kurt, I can’t imagine that I would have a problem with it. Truth is, I’m hungry for someone to say that to me in many ways.
http://youtu.be/bKcgJzj6WBU
And I’m hungry for God. It’s like the god things two weeks back- we crave the thing which satisfies but we create something that won’t sustain us permanently just to satiate the temporary pain. The little gods of marriage vows over loving God and the day to day that really looks like.
So love.
Some might say love is in your heart and you’re a prisoner to it.
Some might say that God is love and should be all sustaining.
Some might say to love who you want as long as I don’t have to see it.
Some might say that love has no gender.
Have we made love into our own god? Have we taken the promise of love and bowed to it? Watching Klaine and reading fan fiction makes me think that at least my generation and the one beneath us has. The biggest trouble is not knowing how, when, or why you did it.
Klaine seems natural sometimes and silly sometimes and vain sometimes but it doesn’t seem wrong. Is it wrong though? Do I live in a Roman account or from Levitical standards at face value or do I take into account that there was a commentary that said homosexuality was only a sin for prostitutes and pimps that engaged in it?
More questions than answers.
Especially if you want God more than anything.
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