Free Thinking

I have spent a good amount of time looking at pictures and watching video from the devastation in Japan. It's almost incomprehensible. For that earthquake to be thousands of times stronger than the '89 quake here is mind-blowing. When I watched the footage of the tsunami slamming into the small town of Otsuchi I was speechless. I had the thought, "I'm watching people die right now! Oh my goodness." It was the same feeling and same thought that I had in 2001 when I was sitting with roommates watching live footage of the World Trade Center collapsing. "I'm watching people die right now! Oh my goodness."

In the aftermath of this horrendous event, there has been a lot of talk about people's reactions in the media. I was reading about different celebrities tweeting their "heartfelt condolences" and responses to the tragedy. Reporters and news agencies were questioning celebrities about what they will do and what they think even to the point of asking these celebrities how they plan on helping the Japanese people. This is sad to me. When a catastrophe of this magnitude occurs and people scramble around to find out what celebrities are feeling, thinking, and doing about it, that is sad.
How in the world does someone see the videos of Japan and then come to the point that they ask themselves, "I wonder what Sean Penn thinks? I wonder if Brad and Angelina are going to help? I wonder if Clooney will do a fund raiser?"

We've become a culture that lives vicariously through celebrities and people we respect. Our conversations are usually riddled with the latest pop culture gossip about who's dating who and the lavish lifestyles of those we idolize. If that were not true, would people like the Kardashians have a TV show? The more we live through vicarious idolization of celebrities, the more we lose the ability to think and feel for ourselves. Truth is, many people are more interested with the lives of those they idolize than they are about their own life. Why is that? Because celebrities live interesting lives...supposedly. I see it as very ironic: our lives are boring so we watch lives that are interesting; however, our lives get more boring as our interest in the interesting lives increases. It's a perpetual problem.

So, how do you make life interesting for yourself? Well, what does "interesting" mean? Is an interesting life one of travel? Is it one with risk? Is it one where you meet new people? Do new things? Chances are those questions, if answered in the affirmative, would define an "interesting life." Strangely enough, they are also ingredients to a life well-lived as an ambassador of Christ.

An ambassador is one that represents another. In this case it is the one that represents Christ himself. The only vicarious living that takes place for those that are ambassador's of Christ is Jesus himself living in you and through you. This is an interesting life.

"Making disciples of all nations.." implies traveling, perhaps. The ambassador risks life, or  health, or wealth in the process of representing Christ. You constantly meet new people and experience new things. That's interesting. It's also obedience.

Those that oppose "religion" advocate an "open-mindedness" lifestyle which allows you to think for yourself. By contrast religious people - and here I mean Christians - think the thoughts they are told to think, so says the religious antagonist. In reality, however, it is Christ that frees us to think for ourselves and feel for ourselves. We become set free from the bondage of thinking the thoughts so common in this world to think the thoughts of God. God has given us the Holy Spirit in part so that we can have the mind of Christ and by having the mind of Christ we are given the imaginative freedom to think the infinite thoughts of God that our finite existence permits us. It is the one without Christ that is limited in their thinking and feeling for they can scarcely think thoughts more magnanimous than their celebrities that fill the covers of countless magazines. It is the ambassador of Christ who has the greatest ability to think well and feel well - and also to live an interesting life through risking their life for the sake of someone else's.

If we continue to live vicariously through celebrities we will eventually lose all uniqueness that makes us, us. We will be simple-minded molds living out an interesting life in a fantasy world all the while losing our own interesting life by wasting the opportunities afforded us to make it interesting in reality. If we live vicariously through celebrities for our everyday lives, then we will also live vicariously through celebrities for our humanitarian efforts as well. Leading an interesting life through obedience to God as an ambassador of Christ prevents us from having the need to live vicariously-dependent upon celebrities. 

So don't be confused about the truth that Jesus has liberated us so that we could exercise our liberty of thinking and feeling for ourselves. We don't need celebrities to tell us how to think and how to feel. We don't need them to dictate to us how to respond to the situation in Japan. We must think and feel for ourselves.  We must allow the Spirit to give us the mind of Christ and to allow the Spirit to work with our spirit to produce a genuine, heartful response to such a tragedy. This will affect our thoughts and feelings and produce in us a desire to pray earnestly for the Japanese people and those that give support. Thinking and feeling for ourselves without the help of celebrities and worldly influences gives our prayers creativity and boldness. Christ has given us this great freedom and privilege. Jesus is not a limitation to our imaginative expressions and musings, he is our very great Liberator.