Like Culture

There is a guy named Trent Shelton. I don't know who he is or what his deal is, but every now and then I come across these generic inspirational quotes of his on Facebook. Things like, "Just because you made mistakes doesn't mean you are one" and "Never settle for anything just so you can have something. Know your worth."

And I have a confession: I am secretly jealous of this guy. He consistently gets 25k likes and 18k shares on these deep and affirming words of wisdom in visual form. How do I become popular like him? What is his secret? I need to know.

All joking aside, the truth is I feel like I have lost a number of friends in recent years. Nothing drastic, just people I think who got tired of their newsfeed getting clogged with my posts about faith. I like having friends. I like getting along with people. I don't know how it got to this point, but it's a painful reality that the closer you walk with Jesus the more alienated you become from the rest of the culture, put at odds with things you never realized you were called to be at odds with before.

I have to believe Jesus is above cheap meme culture. LOVE LOVE PEACE PEACE gets the thumbs up because, really, who doesn't want love and peace? But then he comes and ruins it all but being straight with those who want peace and love in a tidy package:

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's enemies will be the members of his household." (Mt 10:34) 

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even their own life--such a person cannot be my disciple." (Lk 14:26) 

"Lord, first let me go and bury my father.' Jesus said to him, 'Let the dead bury their own dead.'" (Lk 9:60)"

I'm prepared for this, but it is a high bar, a lot to ask of someone. To set your own family against you...who does that? To be hated? Who wants to be hated? It's true though...when you become a disciple of Jesus, things start to separate, like curds and whey.

I love my family but we are not united in faith. It's one thing to evangelize to strangers but to your own family is kind of awkward. They know you so well, that I sometimes second guess any authority I have to speak about Jesus or the faith. It can also be hard to tell when to just listen and when to speak, when to lay in hard and when to tread lightly. But there's no one I want to see in Eternity more.

And so the other day when I was on my way to the Adoration chapel to spend an hour with the Lord after work, I invited my dad. "Do you want to come?" I txted. "Yes I would" he replied. He didn't quite know what Adoration was. I tried to explain it after we left the chapel, but I think it didn't really register. I asked him when the last time he had been to confession. The conversation was a little forced and awkward, like two people on a first date. Why was I so resistant about inviting my dad to pray together, to go to Mass, to suggest a trip to the confessional? Isn't that what evangelization is? Why is it easier with strangers than my own family? Was I being too challenging? Not challenging enough? It's hard to tell.

In God's economy, the rich young man went away sad when Jesus told him it was harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God because he had a lot of likes. We are surrounded by riches and comforts and spiritually impoverished. We may know the best investments, the best restaurants, but its all rubbish if we aren't rich spiritually, and can even be an impediment to growing in that realm.

Freedom is a great and terrible thing. The desire to be liked, to get likes, to have friends, to be popular, to be financially comfortable, is a great comfortable temptation for me. I am getting closer and closer to not caring what happens to me as long as I am doing what the Lord commands of me, but I am not there yet. And so the fear lingers, but it is slowly dying away. It's like you have everything to lose, and nothing to lose at the same time. And Jesus requires everything of us, not just a few things here and there in a kind of temp-agency contractual agreement. It requires signing on, like a marine, and going where you are told to go, doing what you are called to do, ready to pay the price. Great freedom. High cost. Indescribable reward.