All great spirituality is subversive, including the spirituality of following Jesus. Jesus was poor because the truth is there is more to life than money, and money is only a tool. Jesus did not cower to the power of religious authority, because the religious authority was corrupt and misrepresented God. Jesus did not take a wife or even a girlfriend because there is more to life than romance and sex. Jesus did not associate his identity with a specific fashion because clothes themselves cover the truth.
So when we follow Christ, everything about us becomes subversive. We have the audacity to stand in the middle of the world and weep over the false idols of culture, the power, the money, the sex, the fashion. And we do the same within the church. We say to the religious that their rules will not redeem them, to the performers of ritual that their actions have no power. We say to the angry theologian that Jesus is not an idea, and to the fundamentalist that he is too cowardly to accept or give grace.
Jesus is even subversive about the harsh reality of death, standing in the face of it and proving it powerless. Everything we worship, He dismisses, and everything we fear He faces. He is God.
All the false idols of our culture are reversed in Christ, and we can find comfort in this. Why? Because look at the pain in your life. Look at the hardship. How much of the pain has been caused by sacrificing to idols that have no power to help you, no power to heal you, no power to redeem you? Christ wants us to return to Him and find a true God, hanging on a cross where before we worshiped at the feet of flannel shirts stuffed with straw.
Wow this blew my mind, I’ve read every one of your books but this may have hit me the hardest for how visual of a person i am. I just watched a live painter as a counselor at a christian camp illustrate the death of jesus on a canvas with the help of a few Radiohead songs in the background, that captured it perfectly. But the idea of the pain in life and my pain in recent relationships centered on my worshiping of fake gods and scarecrows really got me.(especially with the picture) Seriously God bless you Don, your writings have changed my life and even helped bring a friend of mine to christ, hope to meet you someday
donald miller, this was astounding. gold. nate, i hope you and your friend keep growing in the grace and knowledge of our perfect Friend.
OH MAN. I loved this… especially this line: “Because look at the pain in your life. Look at the hardship. How much of the pain has been caused by sacrificing to idols that have no power to help you, no power to heal you, no power to redeem you?”
I had to read that one ten times. And I needed this today…
That’s the line that got me too. Made me take a look at what I really worship. Ouch.
Superb! THIS IS THE TRUTH. That’s what the makes the gospel so powerful and profound. The change in lordship from idols to the triune God makes things new.
Well done, Don!
Now that’s what I signed on for.
Interesting! A couple of days ago, you said if talking the talk brought us rewards of social affirmation and acceptance, how much more would the real thing.
I disagreed on my blog http://dreamingbeneaththespires.blogspot.com/2011/07/talking-talk-vs-walking-walk.html
saying that “the real thing might not necessarily bring social acceptance. People might find someone who honestly follows Christ with all her heart as threatening as they found Christ. The real reveals the fake. In a group that have combined to pretend that the Emperor has no clothes, a truthteller may not be welcome. In a group playing in the garden, someone who has been out to the holy wilds of following Christ, who has left the shore and paddled out to Aslan’s Own Country, might be very threatening and suspect.
However, you have a point. If the pretence is rewarded, how much greater will the rewards for the real thing be?
However, they may be entirely different. They will be from God, not the group. And they will stagger our imagination.”
I agree with today’s post. True spirituality will necessarily be subversive–and those who are truly subversive will be threatening to the group. They will have their rewards, but these rewards will not necessarily be those which most people seek.
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I needed this today.. Thank you.
I don’t “share” stuff very often, but this is worth showing my friends. Great writing.
Wow ! Best post ever ! Love this Don….
What a great entry to start off an early morning I’ve had. Your words Don, sum up my life so much, and are relevant to what I have experienced in the past, yet so reassuring to what I am experiencing currently. During college, I had goals of working in the music industry, booking and managing bands. There can be some strange preceptions made about a woman wanting to pursue a career in the industry, working around the clock, being around men most of the time, including other substances and sometimes foul motives as well. I was certain I was going to beat that perception and work my rear off within the industry. Even though doing just that, folks within the industry still diresepcetd me because they didn’t take a “woman” seriously. I then found myself slowly forgetting about the folks that truly did care and love me, worshiping the hottest new band, and trying to fit in as much as possible with the “industry” folks by drinking a bit, smoking cigarettes, and staying up until sunrise not so much in the blissful type of way. These became hardships in life, not waking up early because I was so exhausted from a previous late night at the venue, and then still stressed because bands and venues were declining my offers and guarantees.
I was forgetting to pray at night, barely visiting my family, being a music snob to anything that wasn’t “indie”, and most of all forgetting who I was and where my faith was. The only way to pursue a career was to intern and work for free so much, before actually getting noticed. It was a sacrifice to work so hard, but never move up. That was a sacrifice I didn’t want to make. I later realized that my heart and personality was not ripe for the music industry, and decided to put my collegiate fantasties to an end.
Music is only for my ears now, and life has been on the ups ever since making that change. God has my heart, my mornings, my soul, my nights. Each day, I put God first, and then everything else seems to fall into place! I’m getting married in three months and couldn’t be more excited!!!!
Thank you for being you, Don!
So true! Nothing on this earth can ultimately satisfy us…and, yet, we continue to make idols of the things of the earth. God is the only answer to our heart’s deepest desire and seeking to find that fulfillment by any other means is futile. Jesus Christ (not a religion) lived the life we should have lived and died the life we should have died – for us. It is over, it is finished. We are redeemed – we are eternally accepted by Christ and that can never change. No matter how successful, good-looking, and influential we are. We are accepted today – what a resource to stop the futile pursuit of idols!
Who said Jesus was poor?
2 Cor. 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” -Matthew 8:20
The New Testament. A lot of people try to “reinvent” Christ to fit today’s society, but the truth of the matter is that he chose to walk in places where I’m not sure people would walk in today.
Be very wary of monetizing Christ, of making him fit our society’s projection of 21st century Jesus. That, in my personal opinion [and I'm just a commenter on a blog we've both read], is a dangerous path to tread.
Wow! So much to say but I just can’t write it so I will say thank you for helping me stay true to who I am!
i agree. read this post by don at least three times for brevity and it starts to sound like it should be a song. sell the words to derek webb, please.
This is brilliant. Like, really good stuff. And the thing is, we know it, but we don’t always live it. Thank you for sharing your gold.
I’m working on a blessing – piece on birth and death. Your words got my mind racing on these subjects (and many more). I feel I can’t thank you enough.
Preach it, brother! These are the strongest words I’ve heard from you – and I love them. Truth, indeed!
Great Blog today..one of my biggest concern in my faith is that the Jesus (God) I worship is the one that is more of a reflection of me and what I think God should be instead of the one true God. My hope and prayer is to worship the God in truth. But regardless of my human limitations on knowing the whole truth one enduring truth I do know is that God is perfect love and how ever imperfectly I understand that it is all I need. My challenge is to live that way.
definitely… God’s thoughts & ways are not ours… when we let go of pursuit of all of the “stuff”, let go of “our rights” (we so stubbornly hang on to), trusting in the One who made us & loves us completely, we find the true freedom and simplicity that God wants for us… “Come to Me all you who are weary & heavy laden… learn from Me”
Beautiful. When I think about Jesus being subversive, I’m always reminded of the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. Just think about how hard that would be…a random woman (a Samaritan one at that…the roughest of the rough) walks up to the well, and he calls her out on being unfaithful in her marriages. Now of course, the miraculous part of the story is that Jesus knew her intimately at only a glance. But the part that amazes me is that he was willing to USE that knowledge for her benefit. I had to ask myself, if I was in his place and had knowledge that could change a life like that, would I be willing to share it out of the blue? Or would I be more concerned with what that person would think of me or a million other things?
That’s the essence of subversion to me.
Well said Chris. Jesus was willing to be exculded to include.
This is so good. SO VERY GOOD…. especially for folks like me – who’ve raised in the ‘ought-to’ religion.
Thank you.
Don, I think you’ve got something here. This one needs to go in the next book! Great perspective and parallel, with the scarecrow imagery. Straw burns quickly, as will everything else we hold dear, in an earthly fashion. Way to go in reminding us where to store our treasures and how to evaluate our daily worship.
Amen and OUCH!
Woah… Wow… Thanks. After yesterday’s post, I half expected the last line to say flannel shirts and skinny jeans stuffed with straw ;o) Seriously, though… Thanks.
Over a year ago, after discussing subversion in the visual arts, specifically the likes of Banksy, and Timorous Beasties (check them out if you’re not familiar) I was hit with the realisation/insight that living by faith is by its very nature subversive-if you’re not trying to change the world, and its ways, then you’re going along with it….
All I can say is “Wow!”. THIS is the Don Miller we all come back to this blog to read. Wonderful, powerful post that hits so close to home. Thank you!
beautiful
Have you read “The Subversion of Christianity” by Jacques Ellul? If not, I’d recommend checking it out. He writes from a very deep well, and it’s one of the most profound and wise books I’ve read.
Amen broseph!
Reading ‘Blue Like Jazz’ right now and you smack me each chapter. And you have a blog… awesome, more smacks. Thanks for having the guts to speak up and say things that need to be said, and for smacking people like me. Keep writing, I’m reading!
The problem I seem to wrestle with is that often I just want to be comfortable. Engaging in a subversive life is hard work especially when the human instinct of taking control takes over.
Don. Love you! But… Jesus came for a woman. Us. His bride. His whole life was about it. Adam stood in the presence of God and was not complete without his woman. Jesus wasn’t complete without his bride. He may not have married in his physical human life, but that was because (like Adam) he knew that his temporary loneliness would be fulfilled by God in His perfect timing.
Faith is subversive. It takes everything visible and it says, “None of this matters.” Faith turns everything invisible within us and it says, “This is all that matters. That you find Me here.”
Finding Jesus where nothing can seen is subversively powerful, because it puts us in a position where we have nothing to lose and nothing to prove. Faith puts us on the path to follow Jesus and find Him living through us.
Great post! Not everything is ever as it seems!
Jesus felt against possesions and in those days a wife was a possesion in service to the man, slavery, he was against slavery. But that the man had no sex is pure nonsense ! Where is Maria Magdalena in your worshipping, Don ?
There is very little out there (that I have found) about this scandalous Jesus. more please.
Thanks for sharing this, its a great reminder of how Christ lived for what really mattered. The only thing that bothered me a little was the comment about Jesus not getting married because there is more to life than romance and sex. There is a lot more to marriage than sex and romance as well. I think there were other factors that contributed to him not taking a wife. But I know where you were going with this and completely agree with the concept. Thanks again. Also, I loved Blue Like Jazz.