š Tendie Tuesday: Get Ya Mind Right, Let Me Talk To 'Em
A Brain-Shift For Christians + Pop-Culture
[Editorās Note: Hi! I wrote the bones of this essay about five years ago when some internet people wanted to shame me for watching Game of Thrones. Iāve cleaned it up, removed a few cringe references, and updated it for your reading pleasure. If youāve been here since the beginning, youāll probably recognize it, and I thank you in advance for your kindness in letting me partially rerun it this week. In getting closer to the book deadline, getting three very reluctant creatures back in the school saddle, and prepping for a Popcast live show coming up, itās been a little crazy āround here. However, I know this will be even more enjoyable with everyone adding their thoughts and opinions in the comment section. Thanks again for the ways you keep supporting me in these weird times; I cannot tell you how grateful I am! - ehm]
Christians have been taught the wrong way to consume stories.
Let me set the scene: you're six-years-old, a bright and inquisitive kindergartner, sitting in Sunday School. A kind volunteer is teaching from Genesis, particularly the passage that includesĀ Noah and the Ark (even though
+ There were evil people in the world, and Noah was the only good guy left.
+ God sent a flood to wipe out humanity, except for Noah and his family.
+ God put Noah and his family and two of every animal on a boat.
+ It rained.
+ The floodwaters left (a dove!) and Noah and his family lived happily ever after.
+ Also a rainbow!
I know why we are afraid to tell kids the real story of Noah and the Ark (I mean, if you think about it, you know why too). I know why we make crib bedding with the animals all two by two. I know why we end the story on the rainbow and not Noah's drunkenness with his sons a few verses later. Because looking at that story in the eyes is terrifying. We gloss over that story like ice skaters because we don't want to think about a God who destroys almost all of humanity. The story of Abraham and Isaac? Same thing. What is that story trying to tell us about God? About humanity? About me and you?
Humans crave stories. We always have. This is not new information for you, because our brains are always trying to tell us a story to help explain the world around us. We need to understand why this friend hurt us, so we create a narrative. We try to process a death, so we ask to hear the stories that surround a person's final moments. We look back at trying times in our lives and want a trial to serve a greater purpose, so we write a draft. It's embedded in our DNA to seek out the truth, to try and make sense of chaos, and story is one of our major tools.
When the author of Genesis unflinchingly recorded these details in the stories of Noah and Abraham, no matter if they actually happened or not, no matter the trails they walked to become sacred text, I believe they are the inspired word of God, and I believe God wants to tell us something about God in these stories. When the major prophets paint pictures of fire and brimstone, when the minor prophets boldly spoke truth to power, none of it was pretty. None of it was fit for the Hallmark channel. When Jesus embedded the truths of the Kingdom into stories, He was giving us a way to better understand the unfathomable news of a shepherd who rejoices to find one lost sheep, a man who sells everything to buy a field with a hidden treasure, seeds that fall on good soil. Jesus is helping us understand the mysteries of God by telling us a story.
Or as one of my favorite authors1 puts it:
āImagine a poem written with such enormous three-dimensional words that we had to invent a smaller word to reference each of the big ones; that we had to rewrite the whole thing in shorthand, smashing it into two dimensions, just to talk about it. Or donāt imagine it. Look outside. Human language is our attempt at navigating Godās language; it is us running between the lines of His epic, climbing on the vowels and building houses out of the consonants.āĀ - ND Wilson
On its surface, I cannot say thatĀ Game of ThronesĀ (orĀ The Walking Dead, orĀ Saving Private Ryan, or or or...) meets Saint Paul's criteria for things to think about (Phil. 4:8). I would argue that is because we've confused true with clean. Clean says: there's no bad language or sex scenes in this movie, so I can watch it. When in all actuality, while that Hallmark movie is rated G, it makes you hate the fact that you're single or creates dissatisfaction in your marriage,Ā and gives you wildly painful expectations of love, relationships, and what your life should look like. It stirs up jealousy in your heart. But it's clean so...we let it slide.
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