can nerds be relevant?

I walk down the quiet hallway. POP. Just like that, a perplexity explodes in my mind. I take a sip of water. I look curiously at the ceiling. The perplexity buzzes. Nothing new, really. Yet an intriguing ponderance.  A blog is birthed... so here ya go....

So many missionaries. So many all-too-often-assumed stereotypes, expectations, reputations. The word "pray" and "bless" overused? The eagerness to emblazon the symbol of the cross on the forehead of any pagan who stumbles by? Crosses --the symbol of the death, of sin, of conviction-- on Easter eggs, in windows, on pumpkins, t-shirts, on accessories plastic and diamond? Homeschooling and potlucks. Extra Bibles and tracks in the satchel.  Awkward intentionality that is misunderstood. Communities of  "Jesus bubbles" that somehow fester and become toxic --life becomes more about relearning how to love the brother than how to love the other. The other? Fake smiles when there is turmoil in the background? Am I am member of this Christian club?

Cynicism. Criticism. I fall into it. I ridicule in pride. Here's the thing...we are all nerds. Christian nerds are their own subcategory. And missionaries often receive a lot of this flack.  Probably not a boasting point? Thankfully, Jesus' exotic grace meets our feeble awkward efforts every time.  ((((Sigh of relief)))) But even slathered in grace...are we effectively talking with, loving, chillaxin' with our neighbors?

Sometimes pieces & smudges of what is perceived as a nerdy culture meets the culture it intends to love in a beautiful way...perhaps, as in my Alaskan world, things like knitting, turtlenecks, stuffed carcasses, facial fuzz and ginormous bunny boots can be comically relevant?

Best as I've discerned it...we Jesus-loving-people really need a platform of cultural relevance in order to be heard. Relevance.

We need to know what people are murmuring about, in order to have a clue how to intercept murmuring... with Truth.

Life is fast and hours are numbered. But is it our Christian responsibility to invest some of our life hours engaging with our culture? My vote; a resounding YES! So how do we do this? In watching, hearing the media? Can Christians serve the Lord by watching popular tv shows? In knowing how to make ourselves culturally relevant in appearance? In knowing the hot-topics of the news reports? By attending public schools and state universities? By taking public transportation more often? By reading oh-so-popular books about vampires and wizards and captains with underpants?

Here's my complex: the lingering mindset of my college experience still seems to urge me to familiarize  with pop Southern California culture... and my here-and-now culture cares more about ammunition availability & bread baking than wardrobe coordination. To meet a culture eye to eye, how much of it do you need to accept? I'm not sure I'll ever be inclined to want to make a quilt. Nothing in me desires to learn such patience and meticulousness. But if quilting is the route to meeting and knowing women, must I embrace it in this Alaskan context? How do you live multiple cultures at the same time? I have close ties with my California friends, I work with west and east coasters, Filipino women, Alaskan whiteys and Alaskan natives.

And then the timeless question -- How to engage with, yet to not be seduced by, the culture of a broken, blemished paradise?  How to live simply and purely without becoming estranged, incongruent and irrelevant? And how can relevance in one setting be so entirely irrelevant in another? How do we train ourselves to be relevant in different faculties without bias, with enthusiasm and without idolatry? 

Of course, we must strive to stay first and foremost rooted, intertwined with the vine of the Word. Devoted first to our first love, before devotion to helping with the messy rest. Yup. Here I am, the Alaska world on the hinge of dawn, and I'm convicted by my own musings. How much time to I spend dappling in the things of this world? Whether it be movies or facebook or pintrest? How much time do I spend drinking of the Satisfying Source? Life always, always comes back to loving the Lord (our GOD!) before all else, eh? Come on nerdy church, let's help each other do this. Let's press into the One who sets the standard for eternal relevance.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.  And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2: 15-17

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  John 17: 14-18

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2