What We Care About May Not Matter That Much To Jesus

Would it bother you if I told you that I listen to the Grateful Dead and a band called the Mother Hips? Would it matter if I tell you I don’t like Christian movies?

What is the first thing you think of when I tell you I would rather listen to NPR than Christian radio stations? That I follow some liberals on Twitter and have voted for Democrats on occasions? That I own a Subaru?

I tell you this not because I think I am cool (I know me and I am not cool) or because I think the people that make different choices than me are stupid or less sophisticated. I am not trying to shock anyone. I am not saying that I am right or better than anyone else.

What I am trying to do is point out the absurd tendency in humans to use cultural markers to categorize, identify, judge, and even dismiss. These cultural markers often have nothing to do with the emphasis that Jesus clearly stated for his followers.

Jesus said that if we are his children, we will obey his commands. What commands? You can start with the Sermon on the Mount. He later said that anyone who follows him must take up their cross and die to self. That is a demand much more costly than whether my kids watch Sponge Bob or not. He also said that the world will know his followers by how much they love. Wow, that takes work and humility and sacrifice and is hard to quantify to impress followers on Facebook.

I have expressed my problem with judgement here, so I am trying not to turn this into a finger pointing session. I simply think that the time has come for Christians to shift their focus away from superficial Christian subculture markers and who is in and who is out thinking and, instead, become obsessed with character transformation, spiritual growth, intimacy with God, and love, in the most Biblical sense.

You may not like my choice of music or politics but in the words of John Wesley, “If your heart beats in love for Jesus, then take my hand and we will walk together in fellowship.” And our focus will not be on categories of cultural adherence but on our love for God and others. If we work on that, then these other things will take care of themselves.