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 Why
do we like these things? Maybe it’s more than just because they
look cool or the way they make us feel. Maybe it is because we have
a desire to know and understand our roots and our uniqueness. We
want to know where we come from and to know more about the earth
that existed before us. We want to be unique and truly who we are
made to be.
We seem to be looking for these things because
our culture lacks identity. The identity of our generation seems to
be generic and universal. We can’t find true uniqueness around us
nowadays, so we look for it in superficial ways.
We want to know who we are, and the only way to
find this out is to understand who God created us to be. We get,
and are told, who God wanted us to be through the Word. We study
the Word through hermeneutics and its principles.
We long for change because of the desire to
find the real us. By understanding God’s true character found
through Jesus’ teachings and scripture, we find out who we really
are and need to be.
However, our search for uniqueness has been
ending up in girls buying crazy looking slipper/shoes, thinking that
their pair are unique to their own personality, when really 1.5
million other girls have the exact same pair, or with guys creating
what they think are unique sermons with new twists on what the text
“really” means, when really they are straying form the original
context to prove a self-driven point. These self-driven points are
not manifestations of biblical truth.
In a world of 6.6 billion people, we desire to
be different, special, and feel like we belong. Instead of looking
for it in the character of God, we look for it in the voices, words,
and music of our times.
Regina Spektor describes how our values and
beliefs are created by the voices, words, and music that are shoved
into our brains through our culture.
“I hear in my mind all these voices
I hear in my mind all of these words
I hear in my mind all of this music
And it breaks my heart, and it breaks my heart.”
-Regina Spektor “Fidelity”
[to top of second column]
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I think that people hear in their minds all these voices, they hear
in their minds all these words, words that tell them what should
describe their reflections in the mirror. Do these shoes match my
dress? Could I get away with wearing a shorter skirt? It’s
breaking my heart to see our seeking of uniqueness end up in an
alleyway of Gucci, Von Dutch, Armani, Abercrombie and Fitch, Mary
Janes, ect.
What are we really seeking? Shouldn’t we be
seeking for more? Are we seeking our uniqueness through being the
image of God, or the image of fashion and reputability?
If we are not careful, the things we own, such
as shoes and skirts or our actions and statements, could end up
owning us.
In the world according to Jiryis, claiming to
seek the image of God but actually seeking the image of fashion and
reputability is a deep-seated, life sapping paradox. As citizens
and priests of the Kingdom we must be living and speaking candidly
in relation to our biblical principals.
[Jiryis Shaheen - LCC student]
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