RELEVANCE

RELEVANCE

As I drew closer to God and have been enjoying his loving embrace and having a great time with my family, I began to reflect, why now? All this while I have been away and as I recollected …. I began to remember some of my encounters. I once came across a preacher, a rather unique one, His wardrobe choice was interesting, to say the least: very large black suit or should I say coat as we now call it, topped with a tucked-in polo, ultrathin, collared, white shirt, and shiny black snakeskin shoes. I remember him being sweaty, probably because he was ranting and raving, whirling around, and pointing at people as he bellowed bible verses. Standing in the center of a bustling street, an evangelist was preaching to a gathering crowed and was too interested to walk by. So I stopped and listened as he fired eardrum-bursting phrases that reminded me of so many other street preachers ‘’the end is near!’’ ‘’repent!’ ‘’if you died tonight….’’And so on. I don’t know if there is an intersection evangelist school where these preachers learn all the phrases and motions, but if there is, this guy must have graduated at the top of his class. He was at the top of his ‘’turn or burn’’ game. His attention was fixed firmly on his temporary flock, when suddenly he turned toward me, Walking as a briskly as his portly body would allow, he approached, thrust his long spiny index finger in the face of the person next to me, and shouted ‘’ YOUR TATTOOS WILL NOT SAVE YOU FROM HELL!’’ And turned to me and said “YOUR MUSCLES WILL NOT SAVE YOU FROM HELL! He got within a few inches of my face, stopped, and stared at me as I stood silently. Then he spun around and continued, this time in the direction of another person.

I remained for a few more minutes, saw more of what I had already seen, and left, stopping to see other street attractions. It was all really cool, but with everything that I watched, enjoyed, and even admired, I couldn’t get my mind off the evangelist.

Jesus and Relevance, Those two words seem to go hand in hand, Jesus had a knack for the relevant like few others, maybe like none other, and it’s always amazed me. He always seemed to be right on target with culture and people of all kinds, Rich people. Beggers. Farmers. Slaves. Soldiers. Fishermen. Prostitutes. Officials. Religious people. Men. Woman and Children. It didn’t matter who it was. Somehow, he was relevant. Some people hated him and some people love him, but whether they agreed with him or not, everyone listened to him. But when I look at his life and ask, what made Jesus relevant to the world around him? I’m not satisfied with an answer that points to anything external, which, oddly enough, is the place we seem to think relevance is found.

“Relevance, relevance, Where at thou relevance?” as the king James would put it The places we look for relevance and the things we do in order to be relevant

Hairstyles: we change our cut/style in order to younger or edgier, more with the times

Clothing: we wear T-shirts that say “anarchy” or whatever else is currently in, and maybe some trendy jeans or some sport jersey or a celebrity picture

Music: we listen to music other than what is really us, just so we can show people that we don’t only know and enjoy tunes written in the 90s but move with the trend

Branding: we give ourselves nick name to suit the society or something we trending as we call it

Building: we make sure that our churches look like, smell like, and function like malls, theaters, stadiums, and other places that are more mainstream 

References: we are good at mentioning things that are reasonably recent- this could be a movie quote, song lyrics, a brand name, an actress, a style, or even some slaying term that other people are using nowadays

Fame: we want to be known by everyone through a series of television, film, talk show, stadium, and magazine cover appearances and now social media.

Those are some of the things we do in order to be relevant to this world,, and some of them actually help. Sometimes, even the smallest bit of common ground can make all the difference in a relationship; plus, we live in a superficial world, and we can be a superficial generation, so the above do aid relevance. They can take one or two bricks out of someone’s wall, but they fall way short and always will, because ultimately, relevance is not an external issue. It’s an internal one.

I discovered that Jesus wasn’t relevant because he wore the latest in tunic and sandal fashion (Moses as we call it). He wasn’t relevant because of his age, the particular way in which he groomed his beard, or simply because he shared interests with the people at large. He is one of the most interesting people of all time, but that’s not ultimately what made or still makes him relevant either.

Something much further below the surface made and still makes Jesus relevant.

HUMILITY. It may seem strange, but if I could point to one thing that made Jesus relevant to the world, that would be it. He treated everyone with respect and wanted to know and learn about people of all kinds. He didn’t simply have the same interests as someone else; he was always interested in that someone else. He spent time among people, with them, and believed people to be beings of infinite depth, gifting, and importance.

He served. He asked questions and listened, and because of this way about him, he understood people, why they hurt, their desires, interest, and what they really needed.

I am sitting at home now, alone and thinking about this very idea. As Christians, we seem to be so obsessed with the idea of relevance. WE’VE GOT TO BE RELEVANT. WE’VE GOT TO BE RELEVANT. WE GOT, GOT, GOT TO BE RELEVANT… but maybe we don’t need to be. Maybe we need to talk about, focus on, and become more humble and maybe if we did, relevance would take care of itself. Maybe that’s the conversation we need to have. Maybe that’s the idea we need to wrestle with. What does it look like for us to live humbly? 

Thinking back at that preacher. While his approach was blunt and I certainly didn’t align myself with all that he said, much of it I actually agreed with and believed to be true. In fact, much of what he said as he preached probably needed to heard, but I knew his message wouldn’t be received that much because I feel he was irrelevant. I couldn’t put my finger on why he was irrelevant. So I kept thinking about it. Maybe he’s irrelevant because he won’t stop shouting, and spitting as he does. Or maybe he is irrelevant because of his cloth; he is not wearing what is trending, in the same way that something external doesn’t ultimately make us relevant, something external doesn’t ultimately make us irrelevant either. I kept thinking. Maybe he’s irrelevant just because he is street evangelist. I have never personally known a relevant street evangelist closely. But I drilled down further and further, I exhumed something else. I recognized that what really made him irrelevant to me was how he treated me. Around him, I felt like a worm, like I didn’t matter, like a lowly pawn to his king. I felt unimportant, like I wasn’t worth knowing, like there was nothing of value in me, like I could fully be understood, inside and out, with a simple glance. He thought he knew everything about me, as if my past, my soul, and mind were his childhood bedroom. He was certain he knew what I thought, how I lived what I wanted, and what I needed. But he didn’t. He didn’t know the questions I was asking about God, my struggles, and my fears, so while he was talking to me, and he didn’t care to find out. What made him irrelevant was his approach.

In retrospect, I should have recognized it earlier. The same trait made me irrelevant too. I used to think that under no circumstances could I possibly be irrelevant to my generation. After all, I was young, tall, smart, outspoken and well traveled, and in my opinion, an average sense of what was cool. I used to think that way, but I don’t anymore, thanks to my encounter with Christ. This transcends beyond my physical life, it affects my relationship with God. Sometimes I read the Bible. And sometimes I don’t. That’s not a point of pride for me, just the opposite actually. Call it laziness. Call it apathy. Call it unfaithfulness. I suppose my reasons for not engaging it mare are little bit of each, but there’s more to it than that. There’s also a part of me that, at times, flat out wants to avoid the Bible. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in it very much, that there is nothing else in this universe like it, that it is perfect, that it breathes, that it is the word of God, and yet sometimes I want to distance myself from it. My primary reason is I know that the Bible possesses the potential to cut me, to get into me, to bowl me over with conviction.

There are instances when as soon as I open it, I hear the conviction coming towards me, like a train, crushing downs the tracks. I know that if I lingered for too long, bells ringing, gates descending, black smoke gathering, I am going to get hit. I know that if I honestly read certain passages, I will be certain that the words pertain to me, that I need to hear them, that I am the target audience. The Apostle Paul has some words like that. He said, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” (Phil. 2:3). See what I mean? With these words, I hear the train coming….. Paul is talking to me and I know it.

Hearing these words reminds me that humility isn’t commonly my way of life, and that’s why I want to avoid them, because I don’t want to be reminded of sin, of my pride. And I don’t want to think about the ramifications that humble living has. And it has major ramifications.

Humble living means more than stooping, more than placing myself on an even plane with others, which is what I often do. It means putting others ABOVE me. It means kneeling, putting myself BELOW people, BELOW others. It all sounds so excessive, but that’s because it is. When it comes to humility there is no halfway. Jesus certainly didn’t go halfway. He served. He listened. He gave. He was interested. It seems like he treated people not as equals but as superiors; as if they were more important than him, more valuable than him. That’s excessive, and that’s the point. That’s exactly what makes humility so oddly powerful, such an unexpected and unusual force of change. That’s why humility is the source of relevance.

Consider how differently we might interact with people, with each other, with this generation- and the kind of change that might emerge- if we were to embody this kind of excessive and oddly powerful humility. Perhaps then we might move further into this generation rather than separating ourselves from it, be students of this generation rather than presuming to be the professors of it, and realize that we can learn more from others than they can learn from us, that we need them more than they need us. Perhaps then we wouldn’t approach people as projects but rather as human beings, we would see ourselves as servants rather than saviors, be creators instead of imitators, and carry towels rather than checklist.

Perhaps then we would ask more questions rather than giving more answers, listen to stories rather than only telling our own, and wrestle with how to meet their needs instead of asking them to fit in with what we are already doing. Perhaps then, if we lived with excessive humility, as Christ did and as Paul encourages, we would be the kinds of people that my generation needs. Perhaps then we would realize that the most relevant thing we can ever do for someone is to serve them. And perhaps then change would bleed out from us and into countless lives. I think so. Of course, if you are like me, you need a little help getting there. The first steps are often the hardest that’s why most times, I end up standing still. God has been taking me trough one day at a time, He can do that for you as well if you submit to Him and allow Him to.


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