You’ll Never Look at a Dixie Cup the Same Way
I had a refreshing conversation with a friend recently. So wonderfully refreshing.
We were talking about how Christians in this culture have come to be known as the people who hate abortion and homosexuals. Forget the life-giving relationship with our Creator, we want to make sure people know what we’re against. We’ve painted ourselves into a corner and there doesn’t seem to be a foreseeable way out.
My friend then shared the most vivid, truthful analogy I’ve ever heard regarding the mess we Christians have put ourselves in. He said:
Imagine going to a job interview. You’ve got the nice, pressed suit. You’ve got the resume ready to go. You’ve got your list of references. You’re on. You’re waiting to to be interviewed by the boss when the secretary comes over and hands you a dixie cup. She says, “Sir, we’d like you to take a dump in this dixie cup. Drop a dooce. Number Two. We’re going to be evaluating all of our candidates based on what they put in this cup. Thank you.” So now, the resume doesn’t matter. The suit doesn’t matter. What you have to offer doesn’t matter. You’re not be evaluated on those things. You are, quite literally, being judged by your crap.
Wow. Bold. Brash. But isn’t it the truth? In this analogy, Christians are the nicely-dressed job seeker with tons to offer. What we have to offer, of course, is a life transformed by Christ.
The person doing the interviewing in this analogy is the culture–they’re inspecting our “refuse” (to put it lightly). They want to see if our “crap” is the same as everyone else’s or if there’s something different about us.
My friend went on to say that when we make our faith about anything other than Jesus, when we make it about abortion or immigration laws or politics or homosexuality debates or drinking (or not drinking), we give the culture “crap.” We give them exactly what they thought we would give them. Junk. Refuse.
As we ended our conversation he said to me in closing, “There’s got to be a third way.” Amen. There’s got to be a way to get out of the corner we’ve painted ourselves in. The only question that remains is how?
what a mess indeed – this is an awesome analogy
Love this: “when we make our faith about anything other than Jesus . . . we give the culture crap.”
I would have to take an angle that this creates a “Subjective Jesus” based on how we want the prism of Jesus to look like. Somehow, the movement against bringing up any moral issues has happened in the church, which I simply can't agree with. Sometimes I wonder if Paul would be shunned more today than he would have been in the Book of Acts or when he rebuked the church of Corinth, would he be rejected by his own church for calling them on the carpet?
I get the point that people tend to idolize these issues which taints the overall message of Christ, but Christ certainly didn't just look past people's sins, He instead would say, “go and sin no more.”
The reality is, standing up for what you believe isn't always popular and will be seen as crap by the Gentiles. It will even make some of them angry, like they were with Paul when he was instrumental in starting a revival, taking business away from the idol makers. The question is, are you speaking out of the Spirit of God or out of your cherry-picked issues that make you look more Christian?
Certainly is memorable, isn't it?
I just liked that talked about pooping in a cup.
sigh, I can't imagine what a face-to-face meeting will be like with you. =P
I tend to ramble sometimes and usually require the help of others to complete my thoughts. Mostly because my walk is still new and I am not as well read. But, I will give it a shot.
The corner. Never a good place to be, but Christians have put themselves there by being, for lack of better term, judgmental. Take in Jennifer Knapp for example, and Justin you have hit on this already. For years she was a hero, a role model, and a “good Christian” all the while struggling with sin that all of us do everyday. She likes girls, is that a sin? Yes it is. Are we to beat her over the head and shun her or are we to know that in her heart she has the Holy Spirit, but in her flesh she struggles?
This, in my opinion, is just one example of “crap” as you would put it that is put in the cup. We all have sinned, we all still sin. Yes we have died to this world and been born again with Christ but as long as we are on Earth, the war wages on. Our hearts have the spirit but our flesh and minds deceive us. We pass judgment when it is not ours to pass.
I know, I ramble. I warned you. Yet, I haven't made any mention of a resolution to the problem. On to that part.
I'm not at all saying that our values as Christians should be diluted and we should be accepting of the sins that we stand against. We should simply be accepting of the sinners and, just like your friend said, keep Christianity about Christ. The love for our brothers and sisters in Christ, loving our neighbor, turning our other cheek to those who strike us, and most of all spreading the fellowship, acceptance and grace that comes from God through us.
If I'm completely wrong, show me. I posted a comment to learn and grow and fellowship with other people, not just those that have been saved, but those that need to be saved too. That need to know God loves them.
Spreading fellowship, acceptance, and grace sounds like a good start to getting out of “the corner.”
nice work.
We all know that when you have a baby at home, your life revolves around “number two”.
I say we all just become absurdly Christlike, to the point that people think of us as “those people that won't shut up about Jesus, but we tolerate because they take care of everyone so well.” Or, maybe even better, “those people with no pride.”
My wife wrote a blog post on a similar topic. Check it out here: http://outreachgeek.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/ou…
Jesus = Love. They should know us by our love (not judgment or self-made moral higher-than-thou syndromes). How can they see love in us if we cannot BE love to them?!
Jesus = Love. They should know us by our love (not judgment or self-made moral higher-than-thou syndromes). How can they see love in us if we cannot BE love to them?!