What does it really mean to be a good Christian? The other day I was watching a TED talk by Tim Harford entitled: “How Messy Problems Can Inspire Creativity.” In this video, Tim Harford describes how in 1975 a German teenager named Vera Brandes was the youngest concert promoter in her country. She had managed to persuade the Cologne Opera House to host a late-night concert from famous American jazz pianist, Keith Jarrett.
Over 1,400 people were scheduled to come that night. Only hours before the performance, Vera was showing Jarrett the piano that he would perform with, Jarrett then preceded to tell Vera that if she did not get a new piano then he could not play. The current piano was so broken and out of tune that it would be near impossible to not only play, but also play effectively. Vera could not find a replacement piano anywhere. However, instead of giving up, Jarrett stood on stage hours later and played what was perceived to be the unplayable piano.
Jarrett needed to avoid the certain keys, therefore, it required him to stick to a limited amount of the keyboard, which gave the piano a soothing tune. Since he was only hitting the middle tones, the piano was very quiet, and therefore, he stood and passionately pounded on the keys. This was in attempt to create enough volume so that the sound would echo throughout the entire opera house, and in the end, it was considered one of the best of Jarrett’s performances to date. To this day, it is the best-selling piano album and best-selling solo jazz album in history. Keith Jarrett had been given a complete mess: an utter disaster. However, instead of turning his back on it, he chose to embrace the mess; and the outcome was beyond anyone’s imagination.
There have been so many times in my life where I have walked away from a situation, or from someone, because their life is “too messy” or that my life is in shambles. There have been countless times in my life where I think that there is no way that the Lord could ever love me after what I have done. There’s no way. Nevertheless, the Lord wants all of us: even the mess. This is something that, at least for our generation, is looked over in the church. Plenty of times when we enter into a church, we are told to leave our problems on the outside; to only bring in what is our “Sunday best”. But shouldn’t we be bringing our problems to the altar and presenting them before the Lord in prayer? Should we not be asking for the Lord to do with them as He wishes? We shouldn’t be leaving them at the door, we should be presenting them to the Lord.
In most cases, throughout the majority of our lives, we are redundantly told “fake it until you make it.” What does that even mean? Do I just act like I’m happy until one day I’m actually happy? That doesn’t do anything except make it easier for other people to be around me. All that does it make me a bearable person to be around because I’m not always on edge. Recently I was told that the Lord cannot have a relationship with someone who is fake, because if you aren’t going to be real to Him, how can He bless you? God only blesses people who are real with Him because even though He is always there, they are the only ones who will let Him in. In our world today, we have this perception that we have to be perfect before we can go in front of the Lord.
We have this view that we need to have everything together, or, at least, appear that we have everything together, for us to come to God. This is very evident in our everyday lives, especially through the growth of social media. In the social media realm, having the most likes on pictures or the most retweets on a tweet, or even the most likes on a post is what defines you. We are constantly seeking perfection from the outside - we have this desire to look perfect so that our imperfect lives don’t show through the cracks, and maybe someone will want to befriend us. This is slowly becoming embedded into who we are and without realizing it, we begin to look at our relationship with God through the eyes of social media. Therefore due to the rising dependability of social media for our fulfillment and affection, we have this desire to come to God as perfect people.
Another example of seeming like we have it all together is in the college world. We are told our entire lives: “you need to go to the best college so that you can get the best job with the highest paying salary when you graduate.” However, it was when I actually went to college that\ I realized how insignificant the past 18 years of my life were. All of my grades had to be perfect or I wouldn’t get money to go to college, all of my test scores had to be the best, I had to be the ideal “well-rounded” student with sports and performances, internships and church, clubs and a perfect GPA. I put all of that in a folder on my computer and submitted it along with an application to each and every college I decided was the best. I then waited as I was judged, not based on who I am as a person, but how well I looked on paper.
Then I was either accepted or denied by a board of admission. If I was accepted then my paperwork and application would move on to be looked over by a scholarship committee to see if I deserve free money or if I should just get some loans and have to pay them back in four years. Most of the time, it was loans. Many of us understand this pain because little of us can ever meet the multiple expectations set for us in the process of applying to college or for scholarships. And that’s just the process of applying to college! If you think about it, our entire lives are formulated around us being the best we can be and hopefully (fingers crossed) that’s enough for us to move on to the next part of our lives, and if it isn’t enough? Well sucks. You either get stuck in this part of your life or you have to wait an allotted amount of time before you can try again.
No matter how hard we try, whether it be our parents pushing us, our siblings, our friends, or even our own schools, we are never going to be good enough. This is because we are human and we live in a broken world. A lot of times our parents set higher goals for us than anything they have ever accomplished because they want to see us be better than them, which is great, but the sting when we fail is much harsher. There are multiple times in our lives in which we forget that there is another plan for us and the Lord has us in His hands. This is so difficult to remember, especially in times where we believe that our plan is the right plan, or where we don’t want to disappoint a family member. What is beautiful in all of this is that we are imperfectly perfect in God’s eyes. Every time our Heavenly Father looks upon us He smiles and says:
“You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you” (Song of Solomon 4:7).
Take a second: how amazing is that? That the Lord, our God, how created everything on this earth: all of the adorable puppies and kittens, the breathtaking mountain chains, luscious valleys and gardens, vast oceans and lakes. Yet He looks upon YOU, His ultimate favorite creation and says that you are “altogether beautiful. There is no flaw in you.”
The world today tells us that we need to fix the way that we look, on the outside, before we can begin to change our inside. This is the “once I do this, then I’ll be happy” mindset. The “fake it till we make it” mindset. However, this is only for everyone else’s comfort in the world so that everyone is “normal” and in their right place. However, when the Lord looks at us, He looks at our heart. In 1 Samuel 16:7 the Lord says to Samuel:
“Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
If God looks at our hearts and not how we look on the outside then why do I need to change how I look on the outside to be okay? Well, you don’t. God works the opposite way from the world, He works from the inside to the outside. He changes our inside first then as our inside begins to change, so does our outside. If you need further proof of this just open your bible to the gospels. Read about Jesus’ time on earth during His three years of ministry. The people that Jesus had problems with were the Pharisees, the ones who put on a show for everyone else. The ones who bragged about how holy they were, yet they were not living out their words. Jesus did not have issues with those who embraced their messiness, and embraced the difficult situations around them; because when they embraced that messiness they brought it to Him so that He may fix it.
As a New Year’s resolution, I think everyone should be a bit like Keith Jarrett and embrace the messy situation that you are put in, or embrace your own messiness and then take it to the Lord. Because once you take that messiness to Him, He will redeem it and make a historically best-selling album out of it.
