Cultural Band-Aid

A few weeks ago I had an awesome opportunity to meet with John Caldwell before his last Sunday at Kingsway Christian Church as their Lead Pastor. We talked about a wide range of topics and he had all kinds of wise things to say. He said one thing in particular that has really burned in my memory.

John Caldwell Quote - "Have our lives radically changed for Jesus?" John was talking about the challenge of leading a church in the midst of a growing suburb. Many of us have been born and raised in suburbs and I read a quote recently from a book, ironically titled Death by Suburb: How to Keep the Suburbs from Killing Your Soul, "The space around us sets up living patterns that condition our behavior." In other words, what's around us may not start out as sacred, but because we live around it for so long, it becomes important to us. Many times, it becomes our idol i.e. "god".

For example, when we had our 2nd baby boy, Will the Thrill, he wasn't that great of a sleeper. I was up many times (as was Karrie) holding him during the night. I found out quickly there are two TV stations that don't have "paid programming" at 3am. One is ESPN and the other is HGTV. Well, you can only watch Sportscenter so many times before you get sick of it, so I would routinely check out HGTV. I know what you're thinking and yes, I've already self-revoked my Man Card. I'm a pansy.

Anyway, after a month or so, all of a sudden I was looking at our home with a different perspective. I looked at our walls and thought, "Wow, we really need some good thick crown molding to make this room look complete." I looked at our Master bathroom and thought "We really need to raise the countertops, get a framed mirror, and a cool light fixture." I looked at our flooring and thought, "Some wood laminate flooring would make this look so much better."

In other words, something had become sacred to me because I was conditioned by a TV show to believe it. It was a load of crap, but how many of us in Suburbia fall into that trap?

Seriously, none of that stuff fulfills me. It either makes me envious and slightly unhappier because I can't afford it. Or I spend money and time on it, forget about it a short time later and start thinking about the next big expenditures I "need" to make to catch up with my neighbors. It's a cultural band aid.

What's a cultural band aid? For me, it's mainly chocolate chip cookies and Seinfeld re-runs. If I'm in a bad mood and want to feel better, those are my cultural band aids. Slap those babies on and life is good. What I'm referring to is whatever we use to cover up stress, pain, exhaustion, etc. Nothing like 2 hours of Seinfeld and a full batch of Pillsbury Break N' Bakes to lift my spirits. For you? I don't know. Maybe it's the mall, or a new car, or chiseling your biceps, or Chinese take-out. The point is, the cultural band aid eventually falls off and the hurt, the envy, or condition is still there.

How has culture conditioned you to live?

How has Jesus conditioned you to live?

Do they clash?

Most likely...yes.

What John Caldwell meant by his question, "Has my life radically changed for Jesus?" is a scary, yet exciting thing to ask ourselves. I would say, "My life is radically changing for Jesus." It's never a completed project and working on it is SO much more adventurous, exciting, and harder. But I'm beginning to use less band aids.

So answer the questions above for yourself. The big question is, do you have the guts to let Jesus change you?