Part 5 - What I am FOR - Not Being Popular

I got into Coldplay before you did. That is a fact. I heard their demo on XFM in 1999 and bought their first EP’s and told anyone who would listen how good this band was and how big they were going to be. Most people ignored me because I often get overly enthusiastic about new music and new artists that I fall in love with. Then ‘Yellow’ came out and everyone was coming up to me and telling me about this new band and their new song. They became big because they were good. But they wanted more. They wanted to become immensely popular.

I still think they are a good band capable of some great music, even though their predilection for epic stadium busting anthems is more than a little ridiculous. (If they are your height of cutting edge music then you REALLY need to get out more. No, seriously). You can see their internal struggle - between pleasing the grateful masses and making music that they love. I’m sure they feel like they achieve both, yet not for me. My problem is not that they are popular. But that they should try and be popular. As the new single proclaims “If you love me/Won’t you let me know”. They need to be loved by the masses and they need to know it.

And I just don’t think that makes for the best music or the best art or for a happy life.

I have never been cool and I never intend to be. Even when I had hair it never looked cool. No matter the cut or the product or the preening. Just didn’t happen. Even good jeans look rubbish on me because I have the legs of a Hobbit. I am currently lumbering ungracefully towards my 30’s with barely more credibility, fashion sense or social skills than I had as a clueless 15 year old.

My high school years were strange because in Harrow, you would join secondary school a year later than everyone else, when you were 12, and then there was also no sixth form so you would leave at 16. I’ve since realised it’s not until around sixth form age before individuality and uniqueness are appreciated at all in teenagers. Prior to that you are all working out your identity internally whilst externally maintaining a facade of total conformity.

At the London Comprehensive that I attended for 4 years, being in the choir wasn’t very cool. Neither was having Cica trainers. And going to church was like a invite for ridicule. I knew even from those early years that if being popular or cool meant being a vain fool or a mindless, monkey-like Alpha male, then I didn’t want it.

So I never got on with being popular and I contain a monumental suspicion for anything that positions itself in a place for being widely received. Generally this suspicion has served me well. I’ve managed to avoid reading The Sun, or watching ITV, or wearing Nike/Burberry/Von Dutch/Jack Wills/Bench/Superdry/insert bloodsucking brand here, or listening to Keane.

Now, by valuing ‘Not Being Popular’ I don’t necessarily mean valuing ‘Being Unpopular’. I think it has more to do with being unconcerned with popular opinion at all. There are many great examples of real quality and artistic integrity that are insanely popular; ‘The Beatles’ weren’t a small band; ‘Lost’ has huge ratings but deserves 10 times as many people watching it and I’m sure I’m not the only one who likes ‘Star Wars’.

Popularity is just not an accurate gauge of anything worthwhile. It is the most empty form of success and a sign of the upside world we live in; where we would rather have the fleeting attention of the hoards rather the constant devotion of a few loved ones. Or the eternal attention and devotion of the One.

"I'm not interested in crowd approval. And do you know why? Because I know you and your crowds. I know that love, especially God's love, is not on your working agenda. I came with the authority of my Father, and you either dismiss me or avoid me. If another came, acting self-important, you would welcome him with open arms. How do you expect to get anywhere with God when you spend all your time jockeying for position with each other, ranking your rivals and ignoring God?” - John 5:41-44

Do What's Never Been Done

When he was just a boy of five
His dad sat him down and said, "Son,
The light that I see in your eyes
Says you'll do what's never been done."

Well the boy, he grew the way they do
Underneath the moon and sun
And a voice beyond his paper route
Said go do what's never been done

And he tried so hard
To be the best he could be
But in his father's eyes
Was always disappointed
Though once he had so many dreams
They were all wrapped up in one
This scruffy boy in grubby jeans
Who would do what's never been done

In school he moved on well enough
To the rat race he did run
To prove that he had the stuff
For to do what's never been done

And he worked so hard
To be the model son
Till he came to realize
That it just couldn't be done
Till he met a girl with golden hair
And a heart as big as the sun
Said if you will take me as I am
Then you'll do what's never been done

Part 4 - What I am FOR - More

The most frustrating thing about people who spend their whole lives chasing a new 'blessing' or 'anointing' or 'impartation' or 'experience of God' is that they get it. God usually gives it to them. Which is annoying if you want to be a cynical know it all. Perhaps God needs some of our advice here... there are people traveling the globe, going to receive every and any blessing they can. Surely it would be better to withhold some of that good stuff for these reasons:

a) God can do it anywhere - why go half way round the world?
b) Surely there are better things to be doing - like projects and pastoring and stuff
c) They will end up being so 'heavenly minded' they are of no 'earthly use'
d) It looks strange to people outside the church
e) Consumer Christianity is the scourge of the modern church
f) All these flights can't be good for climate change

So why does God ignore these potential pitfalls and bless people any way? Here's what I've been thinking:

a) God can do it anywhere....

....but He's not doing it here, like this anyway. And I want it here. Heck, I want it anywhere. As I stated in the previous post in this series, I want the Kingdom of God to do whatever the King wants it to do. Go where you have to go to find Him. Do what you have to do. 

"Seek the LORD while he may be found" - Isa 55:6

b) Surely there are better things to do......

....better than meeting God? Better than hearing His voice? Better than His presence? 

Think of all the projects I could be running and organising. Think of all the people who I could be listening to their problems. Think of all the events I could be hosting. Think of all the resources I could be making. Think of all the good I could be doing.

But God doesn't just want me to DO good. He wants me to BE good. 

To be good news not just organise it.

And what use is all this stuff if God isn't in it and graces it with His presence? Zippo; Zero; Zilch.

"Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere" - Ps 84:10

c) They'll end up being so 'heavenly minded'.....

...... they'll be of no 'earthly use'. I'm struggling to think of where it says in the Bible that we need to be of use to the earth. The separation of earth and heaven, of natural and spiritual is such a strange modern concept. Is it even possible to be too 'heavenly minded'? 

You can live purely inside a Christian bubble.

You can have no understanding of the outside culture. 

You can use too much religious and over spiritualised language.

But can your mind be too heavenly?

Well..... nope.

"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." - Col 3:2

d) It looks strange to people outside of the church.....

It looks strange to those people INSIDE the church!

Glory of God + desperate people + fallen world= a whole lot of weird stuff

As someone said last Sunday, and I paraphrase - we don't need another good powerpoint, we need more power. 

Tidy in the graveyard. Messy in the nursery. And even messier in the delivery suite. Where there is life there is mess. Where there is a Holy God there will be things that can't be explained, rationalised and put into neatly organised theological boxes.

"Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?" - Acts 2:12

e) Consumer Christianity is the scourge of the modern church....

...not quite. The scourge is not those that receive too much - it is those who don't give out. Apathetic Christianity is the disease. Lazy Christianity is the curse.

There are plenty of those who just come on a Sunday for a bit of light entertainment. Those who might rate the church solely by how much they enjoyed the service. Yet it is not the enjoyment of a gathering that is wrong. Nor is it ever consuming what is God is giving. 

Food is good for you - but if all you ever do is eat and never got off your backside and worked or exercised then you get fat and lazy and useless. Same with church.

"Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." - Heb 12:1

f) All these flights and car journeys can't be good for the environment.....

...well go plant a tree

"The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." - Gen 2:15

So I'm still saying:

"More"

dg

Violet Hill (Dancing Politicians)

Slow Thinking

The new blog is not an excuse for laziness, i know, but for 2 reasons it will be a little while for my next 'proper' post....

i have to write an article about music and culture for our magazine which is really long and which i'm also trying to write without slagging off x-factor too much. i will probably fail in that endeavour.

secondly i am processing some of what is happening in Florida and up the road in Dudley and Redding, California - which will form part of the next 'what i am for' series......

in the meantime i may do some casual posting, videos and whatnot..... thank you for your patience with my slow brain.

dg

Part 3 - What I am FOR - Kingdom Come

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” - Jesus of Nazareth

Imagine finding something that you would sell all you had to buy it. It looks like madness, but it is actually logic in its purest form. Giving up what you cannot keep to gain something you cannot lose.

God is love. All He does is flawless. He doesn’t guess or bluff or pretend. He does - and He does it perfectly. And He always has.

Ever since we began messing up our lives, each other and the world we live, He has been set on making things right again. As Sam Beckett did in ‘Quantum Leap’ - He is putting right what once went wrong. Oh Boy!

His perfect way of being is His intention for us. A harmonious way of life - with every relationship strong and every person secure. Though clearly that is not our experience, we see indicators everyday of the beauty we were intended to exist in; an incredible natural world, a great friend, laughing until it hurts, a loving family, a good meal. All this was ours - but we threw it away for nothing. Now God is ‘making all things new’ again. This is what we call His Kingdom. His way of ruling as King. A rule of love.

I am British. And more importantly I am English. I like cricket and tea. I have a stiff upper lip. Yet for all my badge kissing and flag waving during big sporting occasions and my idyllic perception of decency, tolerance and pretty villages, I don’t regard my self as primarily a citizen of the UK, no matter what my passport says. Nor do I serve a Queen. I view myself firstly as citizen of God’s Kingdom. I belong to The King. (No, not Elvis).

The bit of history we find ourselves in is a funny one. The ending has been written (Jesus wins) but the story is still taking place. I always like stories that tell what you what the outcome is before it begins and then still surprise you in the telling; Romeo & Juliet (“A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life”),Michael Clayton and every episode of Columbo.

We are in the middle of the greatest story, with an incredible ending. But before the final chapter (and the eternal epilogue) there are many battles to be fought. And we are the battle field; our souls the prize. There have been, and will be, many victories but also many defeats, but where His Kingdom is advancing, there is triumph and celebration.

"Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit” - Jesus of Nazareth

And there it is.

What I have to do.

What I live for.

As I was thinking about ‘what I was for’ for this little series - nothing stood out more than ‘The Kingdom of God’. That is all there is. It was Jesus’ obsession in His teaching and parables. Now it is to be my obsession. All my energies, money, time, resources and intentions are given up to gain that ‘one thing’ and to grow its fruit. The treasure in the field; The pearl of price; Something worth living for; Something worth dying for.

So my constant prayer is 'Kingdom Come'.

dg

A New Blog

Well...... here it is a new blog name. A new look.

Daily Health Scare has vanished off the face of the planet after Emilie accidently deleted my google account and apparently no amount of pleading/begging/bribing e-mails will cause Blogger Support or Google Accounts Help to actually respond - this is my only option............

Fortunately I directed all my posts to my Facebook account, so I have about a years worth of posts there - everything else has slipped into the abyss. Which is probably good for me, cause when I'm collecting my Dove Award and doing a Worship Tour next year there will be no proof of my mountainous hypocrisy.

Onward and upward......


dg