Metaphor Shirt

Last week, while on holidays in Alberta, my family and I went shopping at a mall.

The mall had a few outlet stores.

One of those outlet stores had a shirt I liked.

The shirt, which regularly goes for $60 was only $9.95.

I have a spending limit of $10 per shirt.

I tried on the shirt.

It fit nice.

I liked it even more.

I bought the shirt as fast as I possibly could.

I did not inspect the shirt.

Sunday I ironed the shirt so that I could wear it to church.

While ironing, I learned the back of the shirt has a flaw.

A major one.

I now call the shirt my metaphor shirt.

I call it that partly because I like to name my clothes* and partly because of the following:

Had I noted the flaw in the store I might not have purchased it. I still like the shirt because from the front it looks great. It's stylish. The color of it is unlike anything else in my wardrobe so my wife can't confuse it with any of my other shirts. And, to be honest, I like the company name embroidered on it.

When you approach the shirt from the front it appears flawless. However, when you approach it from the back you see that this shirt was not crafted with care. There are defects. Specifically, there is a misalignment of seams that is unstylish and glaringly obvious.

For how many of us is this true?

How many of us try and have it all together out front but are falling apart, or misaligned, out back, or on the inside?

The shirt is a facade.

Sometimes I am too.

Plus it is a reminder of me to watch for blind spots. There are things that cause me to miss the obvious. A good deal is just one of them.

So, when people ask why I am wearing such a messed up shirt I tell them it's my metaphor shirt. Buying it may have been a mistake, but wearing it is a lesson learned.


*In addition to the metaphor shirt, I also have a pair of sexy jeans, and painting pants.  However, I refuse to call anything with holes "holy." That joke, like the article of clothing, is worn out.

Jesus is my DJ

You know something I love? I love it when a good song is playing while I’m getting ready in the morning. The best songs are the ones that make me want to dance. This is no easy feat. It’s pretty tough to be motivated to shake what you’ve got when it’s 6am and you haven’t had your coffee yet.

This morning was one of those blessed mornings. I had far more energy then usual, despite trouble sleeping, because good tunes were blasting through the house. This made everything fun. Brushing my teeth was fun. Ironing my shirt was fun. Shaving was fun. Annoying my wife by having lots of energy was fun.

The vibe continued into the car where the radio was on. I heard a song on the radio this morning that I haven’t heard before. (I’m a bit surprised by this since the song has been out for a while.) I enjoyed the song quite a bit, and it‘s been stuck in my head all morning. It’s not the best song ever, but three reasons help one make an argument that it’s good:

1. It was upbeat and fun
2. It made me dance in my seat unashamed of what other drivers thought of me
3. It made me think.

However, it was a radio edit, and the original contains foul language. This surprised me. I somehow missed the objectionable lyrics. This is the funny thing about radio. If you’re like me and a bit innocently clueless, you can think that a song says something it doesn’t. What do you mean James Blunt wasn’t actually “flying high”?

What’s got me writing about this song is the lyrics of the chorus: “If God is a dj then life is a dance floor.”

Really?

Is God a dj?

Is He up in Heaven standing at some turn tables?

No, not really. While that mental image makes me smile I don’t think it’s an accurate picture of God.

Well, then what’s the point? End of discussion right? It’s just a silly pop song about nothing.

Maybe not.

I love the consequential language of the song. I’m convinced we don’t consider consequences enough -- especially when it comes to God. If God is, or acts a certain way, consequences follow. As the song says, if God is a do then life is a dance floor. God is ________ and ________ is a result.

How often do we get it backwards and infer attributes of God based on what we observe?

We see hurt and think God is a god who hurts. Or we see injustice and think that God can’t be just to allow it.

We forget that God is who He is.

And He was before the world existed.

Unfortunately the world is the way it is, partly, because there are other forces playing out. Sin changed how things happen in this world. Now we don’t only see good at work, but we see evil also. We can’t go backwards in this. We need to start with the truths of God, and then look to see them on display in the world.

God doesn’t so much react to the world as the world reacts to God.

And what are the truths of God? What do we know to be true of Him?

God is good.

God is just.

God is love.

God is patient.

God is kind.

God cares about people.

God knows us.

God delights in His creation.

And there are many more truths.

What then, are the consequences, or results, of these truths? How do each of these characteristics of God play out?

If God is good then what?

I encourage you to spend some time thinking about the truths of God and what that means for our world. I’ll be doing that as I dance to the tunes my dj is playing: as awkward and as clumsy a dancer as I am I’m sure He will be pleased.

Lightish

I am not a fan of the darkness. To say I’m afraid of the dark is a stretch that I’m not comfortable making given that I may not know you the reader. But darkness provides far too many opportunities for stubbed toes and other sorts of danger. Thus, I avoid it.

I’m torn, however, because Light, the alternative, isn’t exactly 100% safe either. Have you ever burned yourself on a lamp? Those suckers get hot: hot enough even to back a cupcake. Or how about that time you heard a noise and turned on the light to find yourself face to face with a mouse? No, that wasn’t you. Anyways, light can burn and scar, and scarier yet, reveal truth that we’d rather have hidden in the dark.

In our previous house we had a light in the basement that was notorious for burning out bulbs. This socket could kill a bulb in a matter of seconds: often with the first flick of the switch. The annoying thing was that this light was situated in the darkest corner of the basement. The place needing the light the most could not get any. For all the work I had to do in that corner of the basement I wish I could have gotten some light.

Jesus says some pretty important stuff about light in John chapter 9. As Jesus and his disciples were traveling along they come across a man born blind. His disciples turn to Jesus and ask, “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” Jesus disciples had an understanding that people born with issues such as blindness or crippled limbs were that way because of sin: either their or their parents. In other words, they believe that if you sinned your kids could be born blind.

This was not true.

This issue needed some light shined on it.

Jesus responds then by saying: “Neither, this guy isn’t blind because someone sinned. He’s blind so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”

Do you think it suddenly got brighter in everyone’s life?

Then Jesus goes on to say: “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

He’s the light revealing what’s lying in the darkness, debunking myths, correcting false teaching and showing us the way.

But, if Jesus is gone does that mean the world is in darkness?

Fortunately God doesn’t work that way. Jesus said to his followers in Matthew five: “You are the Light of the world.” God’s plan is that his followers are to be the light. Again, being light is part of our makeup and wiring. We are salty torches.

So, what are we going to do with our light?

Lights can grow dim if not maintained. Batteries die, oil levels run low and if fuel is not supplied the light will die out. Christians who aren’t refueling are going to stop shining.

And lights can be hidden by shades so as to not become uncomfortable to those around. Does God want us to simply be mood lighting setting a nice atmosphere?

And only one light creates shadows while two or three or more, well-positioned lights illuminate the entire space. If all your lights are pointing at the same subject only that one subject will be seen and everything else will be in the dark.

And most importantly, light travels. Darkness is not a wall hemming light in. The light of a single candle can be seen miles away. How far away can our light be seen?

Salty

Sorry, but this is not about a singing song book.

I’ve been studying a few metaphors lately from Matthew 5. In Matthew chapter 5 Jesus tells His disciples: “You are the salt of the earth.” Have you heard this expression before? This “salt of the earth” saying floats around. You might say, “Oh, that Martin, he’s so swell. He’s just the salt of the earth.”

But what does that mean?

It’s a weird thing to be called salt. I’m sure this isn’t a reference to our tendency to become salty when we sweat.

For years I’ve assumed this is strictly talking about value. Salt, for the ancient world is valuable. Today, for a couple bucks I can go to the store and get a box of it. In times past it was currency: it held that much value. I don’t think I can walk into Chevron and plop a bag of salt on the counter as payment for my fuel. It doesn’t work that way today.

It also could be that someone is like salt if they have many uses: or perform many duties. Salt can be used for all sorts of things, from preserving meat to cleaning, to softening water. On the website for Windsor salt company they list about 20 different uses for salt besides using it as a seasoning.

So when you liken someone to salt you can be talking about their value and worth and usefulness.

But there is another property of salt, and that is found in the everlasting nature of pure salt. Pure salt never goes bad. Pure salt lasts forever. What if this is what Jesus meant? What if Jesus was saying “You are to last. You will never perish.”

In Second Chronicles chapter 13 verse five, the King of Judah reminds the Israelites that God made a covenant of salt with David setting David’s line as kings forever over the people of God.

Pure salt lasts. Salt doesn’t stop being salty. In the same way we are to continue living as disciples and witnesses. True disciples last.

But there is impure salt. Fake salt you might even call it.

Impure salt looses its saltiness. Impure salt does not last.

So what kind of salt are we? Are we living as pure salt with a witness that will last forever, or as impure salt that is essentially useless?

Will we abstain from the things that make us impure?

Think about this the next time you use salt in one of its twenty plus uses.