Why I was asked on a date by Anna Kendrick was at first a baffling mystery to me, but one I dared not question. And though the truth was revealed that she had mistaken me for Bradley Cooper, a common occurrence, I swallowed my hurt and tried my best to enjoy our fancy, way-beyond-my-budget dinner at Olive Garden.
Despite our date being purely based on mistaken identity, I thought it was going well. Ms. Kendrick even seemed to enjoy hearing my opinions on the failure of Grover Cleveland's second term as President. But, here's where I f*dged up: as I do with any pretty lady I meet, I instantly fell in love, and began to spout overly-flowery praise of her beauty. My gaucherie was at its worst ("gaucherie" is today's word of the day at dictionary.com).
I declared how much I admired her blue bob hairstyle, chubby cheeks, and how lovely she looked in her red bell sleeve dress. The problem with my words, aside from the forwardness, was that Anna Kendrick of course does not sport a bob haircut, her face is proportionate to her thin frame, and she was actually wearing a Radiohead t-shirt and slacks.
As stupid as my gaffe was, we do this very same thing with God. We describe Him as something He is not - nay, we insist He is something He is not - we give Him characteristics we want Him to have, all to fit our preferred version of Him. Jesus' followers did this even when He walked the earth as flesh - they wanted Him to be some militaristic leader who would deliver Israel, by force of battle, from the grip of the Roman empire. But He was not. And when they realized this, many turned away from Him. Just like we do when we realize Jesus doesn't fit into the mold of a poster child for our personal agendas and biases.
We describe Him as a hippie, just a nice man with nice teachings, another Buddha, anything we want Him to be. Anything but what He truly is - the only true God, the Savior of mankind who died for our sins and rose again, the God who calls to us to follow Him and leave behind our fleshly treasures and prejudices.
We try to ham-fist our cultural expectations into the meanings of the words of Jesus and those through whom He worked wonders. For example, we see the strength of Elizabeth and Mary as a symbol of feminism; we misconstrue Jesus' words to the rich young ruler as an endorsement of socialism; we see His words "the worker is worthy of his wages" as an endorsement of capitalism; we see Jesus' message that marriage is sacred and children are precious as a banner for conservatism; we make "do not judge" a mantra for liberalism.
We try to force-feed our idolatrous, worldly isms into our perception of God, what we want Him to be.
We do no differently than I did by imposing chubby cheeks and a blue bob on Anna Kendrick.
Despite our date being purely based on mistaken identity, I thought it was going well. Ms. Kendrick even seemed to enjoy hearing my opinions on the failure of Grover Cleveland's second term as President. But, here's where I f*dged up: as I do with any pretty lady I meet, I instantly fell in love, and began to spout overly-flowery praise of her beauty. My gaucherie was at its worst ("gaucherie" is today's word of the day at dictionary.com).
I declared how much I admired her blue bob hairstyle, chubby cheeks, and how lovely she looked in her red bell sleeve dress. The problem with my words, aside from the forwardness, was that Anna Kendrick of course does not sport a bob haircut, her face is proportionate to her thin frame, and she was actually wearing a Radiohead t-shirt and slacks.
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| The lovely Anna Kendrick. |
We describe Him as a hippie, just a nice man with nice teachings, another Buddha, anything we want Him to be. Anything but what He truly is - the only true God, the Savior of mankind who died for our sins and rose again, the God who calls to us to follow Him and leave behind our fleshly treasures and prejudices.
We try to ham-fist our cultural expectations into the meanings of the words of Jesus and those through whom He worked wonders. For example, we see the strength of Elizabeth and Mary as a symbol of feminism; we misconstrue Jesus' words to the rich young ruler as an endorsement of socialism; we see His words "the worker is worthy of his wages" as an endorsement of capitalism; we see Jesus' message that marriage is sacred and children are precious as a banner for conservatism; we make "do not judge" a mantra for liberalism.
We try to force-feed our idolatrous, worldly isms into our perception of God, what we want Him to be.
We do no differently than I did by imposing chubby cheeks and a blue bob on Anna Kendrick.
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