I think tonight’s Examiner post came out fairly well. Not that the people who need to read it will, but it needed to be said nevertheless.
Avoiding the downers
One would not customarily think of Sheryl Crow as a source of evangelical edification. No offense to Ms. Crow, but in philosophy and lifestyle she hasn’t exactly embodied what’s accepted as standard operational procedure in this area. Nevertheless, she is just as much a child of God created in His image as the most straitlaced believer, and He does speak through her with His gift of music.
Back in the late ’90s Crow released an album named The Globe Sessions which included a song titled “Anything But Down.” In its first person narrative, Crow details the lament of someone in a one-sided relationship who does all the giving, bringing this and that to their partner who in return, as it says in the chorus, “but you don’t bring me anything but down.” It’s very much the counterpart to the 77s song “This Is The Way Love Is” which is found on the band’s Sticks And Stones album. In its case, the first person narrative details someone who repeatedly fails to hold up their end of a relationship while their partner carries on. As its chorus notes, “This is the way love is / When it’s a one-sided double-minded mirror with no reflection.”
Very few among us have never been in a relationship where one party carried a disproportionate part of the load. In a Biblically-based relationship, while men love to quote the verses referring to the woman being submissive to the man they somehow neglect to mention the part where the man is commanded to love the woman! If you genuinely love someone, you don’t lord over them. You nurture them, protect them, care for them and place their needs above your own. Not a lot of room for strutting your non-existent stuff in such an arrangement.
Let’s take a more expansive view of this in terms of the relationship between a believer and fellow believers; i.e. the church. No one who has been a Christian for more than ten minutes can testify they have never been hurt or let down by another believer. Conversely, not one of us can say in complete honesty we have never hurt or let down another believer. It comes with each of us insisting on being as stubbornly human as everyone else.
With this in mind, it’s well nigh impossible to understand the attitude of some believers who devote their energy to looking down on other believers. Based on what? Their superiority? Yeah sure.
These people are spiritual vampires, draining the life from others while contributing nothing themselves toward the well-being of others. Oh, they firmly believe they’re all about enlightening the brethren as they endlessly rail against the shortcomings of others, always with the underlying theme of how much better everyone would be if “they” did everything the way “we” do it. They gather in little clusters of mutual admiration societies, stroking each other as they assure one another they’re the only ones in the right.
But of course.
How does crushing negativity benefit anyone? How can endlessly lambasting fellow believers you’re unwilling to admit are so much as fellow believers because they don’t see every little theological and/or political permutation you hold dear your way add anything good to anyone’s life? This isn’t speaking the truth in love. This is you blowing your own horn while pretending to be speaking God’s language.
There is no room for ego trips in walking with Christ. To go on one assures only one thing: you tripping over yourself. And that makes you superior how?
The genuine walk with Christ is done in humility and confidence in Him, not ourselves. The true walk is always undertaken with an outstretched hand, helping and being helped by other believers. Christianity is not a solo exercise in self-delusions about how great I art. It’s how great Thou art.
Don’t be a downer. Give love even as it has been given to you.
And get over yourself.
