Last night my wife and I went into Boston to see the show "Once." It's a love story about two people who fall in love through the guy's music. It was a great show full of great modern Irish music. As I'm sitting in the Boston Opera House, I could not help but be overwhelmed by the beauty of this place. The architecture and the details were amazing. I am always enamored by very detailed craftsmanship, especially craftsmanship that has been around for a while. As I'm gazing around at the fine work of art that the opera house is, I thanked God for the beauty of His creation. I know that He did not create the opera house himself, but he created the people who did. Then as I'm watching the show progress, I was amazed by the amount of talent that was on that stage. There were so many musicians who were so talented and it stirred my soul again towards the beauty of God's handiwork.
For so long, Christians have been the ones to define what true beauty is and where it is found. We have said that true beauty only lies within the walls of the church. The outside world is full of filth and corruption and there is no way beauty can exist out there. Granted, we have appreciated the work of creation, but when it comes to finding beauty within our cultures and societies, we have turned a blind eye while culture and society continues to move past us, leaving us in the dust of irrelevance. As the Church, we have to start seeing the beauty that is around us. We have to start celebrating the beauty of God's creation and not just things like the universe and the Grand Canyon. There are so many things in this world that are beautiful and there are so many things that give glory to God that we miss on a daily basis.
When I was younger, I had a huge cd case full of cds that I would listen to constantly. My favorite band at the time was Smashing Pumpkins. I loved their sound and their lyrics made you think about what they were trying to say through their songs. But, as I got serious about following Jesus, there was pressure to get rid of anything that was "secular." That meant my cds had to go, especially if I was going into ministry. So, I got rid of all my CDs. I still miss them sometimes when I look back on it. I miss listening to some of that music because it was good music. It took me a long time to buy a "secular" song or album again because I had been indoctrinated into the idea that "secular" was bad and "sacred" was good and could only be found inside the walls of the church.
Now, don't get me wrong, there are some things that should not be listened to or watched. There are some things that as Christians we should not involve ourselves in. But, we should not go overboard. I am definitely not a Lady Gaga fan, but I do like music that is not "Christian." And, honestly, there is some Christian music that is plain bad.
In order to be Jesus to the world around us and to keep up with a culture that is constantly changing, we need to open our eyes to the beauty that can be found in the secular. We need to stop always drawing the line between sacred and secular. We need to encourage young Christians to allow God to speak to them and not discourage them from following their dreams. We need to encourage people to do what God has designed them to do and be a light for him there. If a young person in a church wants to go into theater, we should encourage them to follow their dreams and teach them to see that as their mission field.
Jesus died for us so that we could lead others to him. If we don't know how to speak the language (without being influenced by the language), then we are going to sit behind our four walls, sing our songs to Jesus, and fade away into irrelevance without being an influence on the world around us.
