Have you ever found yourself in a store, wandering around on some errand run or shopping trip, and suddenly a song from your younger days comes over the Muzak speakers? This happens to me often (I suppose that is a road post on the highway of “getting old”). Recently, I was in Menards picking up some odds and ends for the various projects I have going at our new home and heard an 80’s New Wave song playing over the speakers. I can’t remember the precise song now, but really struck me while I was in the aisle of drywall anchors and screws was how the passage of time had caused this song to become “safe.” When the song had come out, it was edgy, countercultural, and part of the soundtrack of a generation that was wanting to change how things were done. Whether you think of that era and genre of music as being worth listening to or not, what it certainly was not was “safe” at the time. Now, it is seen as being so innocuous that it can be played without any concern as middle-aged folks like myself contemplate various types of drywall anchors or which spaghetti sauce to buy.
Sometimes, this same thing happens with our faith. True Christianity is countercultural in the truest sense of the word, even if you happen to live in a “Christianized” nation such as the United States. It stands out in contrast to the kind of cultural Christianity that is acceptable in polite society. The faith we have when we are first saved is a fervent faith, one that wants others to know Christ as we now know Him. It is a faith that wants to warn others of the terrible dangers of sin, because we have finally had our own eyes opened to them. True faith is accompanied by repentance, a turning away from our own sinfulness and turning toward the things of God – something that cannot be hidden from those around us. These aspects are edgy, according to the world’s view. Living out and speaking out your faith is countercultural, as it demonstrates to society that its established and accepted norms and mores are different from that of Scripture (and should we be surprised that the world’s standards – even Christendom’s standards – are so different from Scripture’s, especially when we know who has been allowed a certain measure of power and authority in this present age?).
Then something happens. Maybe we are beaten down by the reaction of our family and friends to our faith, and we began to “go along to get along.” Perhaps we enter into a dry season in our walk of faith, and our fervency for the Lord grows cool. Occasionally it is a response to accumulated wealth, power, or prestige, things we don’t want to lose if we are too vocal or too active with regards to the church. Or it could be because the trials we face cause us to doubt. Regardless of the why, we suddenly find ourselves with a faith that is very acceptable to society. It has become “safe” because it no longer has the edge of a living faith. Then, when God calls us to do something the world could never understand (remember the countercultural aspect?), we spend a lot of time agonizing over whether we should do it, often rationalizing or justifying the direction that would be the easiest and most beneficial to ourselves as opposed to the direction in which God has called us. When that happens, we have become that song playing over the speaker system at the store: once countercultural, now just cultural. Just something to think about…
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