The Day 'Bland' Died…
September 11, 2001 changed many things. It changed the way we travel, the way we look at tall buildings and, for some of us, even the way we open the mail.
Above all, I think, it has thrown into sharp relief the blandness, the lack of passion with which most of us conduct our daily lives.
Until September 11, ours had been the age of bland. The post-modern age of political correctness produced a generation that has made being inoffensive it's greatest virtue.
Post-modern thinking has taught us that all truths are equally true, that all stories are equally invalid. We have been taught that: 'it's okay to believe that something is true, as long as you don't insist that is the truth of the matter.'
Until now, everyone has been going around trying so hard not to stand on anyone else's toes, to the point of confusing political correctness with truth. Up until now, the world has been preaching "blessed are the comfortable", and some of the church has responded with "comfortable are the blessed". All this has led to the death of passion.
Yet, after September 11, people seem to be less willing to call everything "negotiable". Some things, it seems, clearly are wrong and evil. Some things are true and worth being passionate about.
What is God saying to the church post 9-11? What is God wanting to us through us to the wider world?
For Christians, there should be at least one major lesson learned from September 11. We can no longer afford to present a "business-as-usual", "more-of-the-same" face to the world. We must meet people with a zeal for our God that is greater than their passion for their gods -- whatever they may be.
For the church, if for no other group, September 11 surely represented the death of blandness and a call to passion!
Until now, secular prophets have preached "blessed are the comfortable", while some churches have responded with "comfortable are the blessed". The church needs a revival of passionate living and leadership.
Our God is passionate! Old Testament adjectives reveal a God who is anything but the clinical, emotionless (yes, even 'nice') figure the church has sometimes represented him to be. God is a zealous God, given to open displays of emotion over those he loves (see Deut. 4:24, Heb 12:29, Ex 15:3, Is. 59:17, Zeph. 3:17).
His zeal is in not the fanatical, myopic fervour that drives the murderous zealot. It is the joyful, protective zeal of a God who takes pleasure in his work and his people.
Jesus was passionate, too. The gospels reveal anything but a 'nice' or bland Jesus. His life and ministry anything but 'business as usual' or 'more of same'. The novelist Dorothy Sayers has said that: 'The people who hanged Christ never... accused Him of being a bore -- on the contrary; they thought Him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround Him with an atmosphere of tedium... He was emphatically not a dull man in His human lifetime, and if He was God, there can be nothing dull about God either.'
In this post 9-11 world, we Christians must once again reveal to the world the passion of our awesome God. How do we rise above bland living and keep our passion alive?
Learn to Live With Hunger
Nothing kills passion like unresolved frustration.
Frustration is where your expectation exceeds your experience. It can spring from many sources. It may come from failure on your part. Or from poor performance on the part of other people. It can also come through impatience with God's timetable.
Frustration can also arise when I want in the here-and-now what only heaven can provide.
The gospel world view is vastly different from others on offer today. For one thing, Christian truth insists that human beings are eternal beings, that our lives extend way beyond the limits of our time on earth. That's why Christians have always been at the forefront of the fight to protect the sanctity of life, because they believe that this life is given on loan to us and that we will one day answer for how we've treated it.
Because I was built for eternity, and not just for time, there is a yearning, a hunger within me that can never be satisfied in this life. Because I am built for eternity, this life will always carry certain amount of frustration for me!
I'm not talking about frustration that comes because of my unbelief or disobedience. I'm talking about an expectation of things to come. I can certainly taste heaven in this life! But I can't reproduce it.
In a world where I am encouraged to fill every hunger, to achieve immediate gratification for every need, it is healthy for me to remember that I am 'not of this world'; that there is a blessedness that comes from a hunger for something this world and this life cannot provide.
Pascal wrote that: 'We are never living, but hoping to live; and whilst we are always preparing to be happy, it is certain, we never shall be so, if we aspire to no other happiness than what can be enjoyed in this life.'
In more modern terms, U2 sang: 'I still haven't found what I'm looking for…'
It's a fact: not even the best business deal will leave you feeling totally fulfilled. Not even the best grades in school will make you feel a complete success. Not even the greatest marriage will totally fill your hunger for intimacy.
There's always going to be a drive within you for something more; something greater and more lasting.
If Satan can't kill those desires for higher things, he'll try to seduce them. He'll offer you some 'quick fix' way of dealing with those deep soul yearnings. He may even dress the offer in religious words. In the end, though, only heaven will do it!
If I learn to turn that frustration into desperation for God, channelling it into fervent prayer and bigger, bolder strategies, Godly passion will be revived and released in me. I can keep my passion alive when I don't get sidetracked and seduced into areas that don't satisfy.
Watch for Part 2 of this Article Coming Soon...
Order Mal's thought-provoking book 'MAKING GOD FAMOUS: Equipping Christians for influence in a Post-Modern World.' See our WEBSHOP
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