Yes, I watch American Idol. I’m not proud of it, but there it is. And just to prove that God draws straight with crooked lines, amid the judges’ inane comments – “Yo dawg, that was dope. You’re in it to win it.” Or “You gave me the first goosies of the night.” – Steven Tyler, of all people, spoke words like apples of gold in settings of silver, a theological treasure: “In order to get to the other shore, you need to lose sight of this one.”
Steven was talking about artistic risk-taking, about the need to leave a musical comfort zone (or wheelhouse as Randy might say) to reach new levels of artistry. But the spiritual connotations are clear, aren’t they? We are resident aliens on a journey from this realm without a home, from this city without foundations, to the place of our citizenship, to heavenly Jerusalem. We cannot, at the same time, look both forward and backward; we cannot be friends of earth and citizens of heaven. Or, in Steven’s analogy, we cannot find the far shore of our home until we are willing to lose sight of the near shore of our exile. This would be the ultimate in spiritual risk-taking were it not for the faithfulness of Christ who first traveled the way from there to here and back again and prepared the way for us, and if not for the Holy Spirit, our Advocate and Guide. The risk is not in losing sight of the nearer shore, but in not sailing beyond the horizon of our familiarity and comfort. All the saints have known this. For all of them there was that moment when they lost sight of the nearer shore and yet sailed on with holy abandon toward that country which they had not yet glimpsed, but which made their hearts and spirits sing. And just maybe, that is what separates me from their noble ranks.
Steven Tyler as theologian? Yo, dawg, that’s dope.
No comments:
Post a Comment