Barbie World

So, in moving to a new town, I've been doing a lot of observing. This is a fantastic experience, and I would thoroughly encourage its practice! Clearly, we avoid observing in sketchy ways... hiding in the bushes with binoculars is not recommended. But it certainly is interesting to take an afternoon and just observe the dynamics of the people around you. In particular, I find campus and bus dynamics fascinating.

When you sit on a bus, you always sit Mon-Wed-Fri or Tues-Thurs. I have been told this is also the rule with urinals, but that's up for debate. What I mean is, unless you know the person, you always leave a seat between yourself and them. If you have to sit next to a stranger, you stare straight ahead, or off to the other side, looking anywhere but at them. Heaven forbid if you were to make eye-contact, because that would clearly mean that you had to say something.

Same way, when you are walking across campus. I spot you walking towards me from 40 feet away, do a casual observe to figure out if I know you, and then become actively fixated on the cement below my feet. Is that a twig?? Wow, my shoes are interesting! Again, eye contact very awkward. If by some chance we do talk, the conversation goes like this, "Hey-how-are-ya? I'm-good-how-about-you? Good." All this, while continuing to walk in our given direction. It's no small wonder that the guy on the bus was wearing a t-shirt which stated, "It's ok, I probably don't like you either."

In observing these trends on the public transportation and around campus, I was not surprised or shocked. In fact, I've grown rather numb to this particular experience. But today, as I was riding back on the D-line, I was struck by how much like Barbie and Ken we try to make our world. And not even the exciting Barbie and Ken, who ride in the pink sports car and clearly have the perfect lives. Unfortunately, often times, I think we model our lives against those of Barbie and Ken still in the plastic boxes on the shelves. Perfect lives. Solid walls to keep the image perfect. But let's delve a little bit deeper...

There's a great quote in the movie Shall We Dance, in which the jaded wife explains marriage, saying, "We need a witness to our lives. There's a billion people on the planet... I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things... all of it, all of the time, every day. You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness'."

Along the same lines, there's a fantastic proverb which goes something like this, "Man's greatest desire is to know and be known." In the absence of being known, of being noticed, of being in real community, we live in this pseudo-world, in which the image is perfect, and the person is lost in the plastic. This should NOT be! Especially in Christian community. Community is about being known. As members of the body, we are joined together, and when one part suffers, all parts suffer. When one part rejoices, all parts celebrate.

Being known is inbuilt into our DNA because we were designed to be known by our Creator, and to know Him who made us. Adam and Eve were designed to know and be known by one another, and feel no shame. Yet sin distorted all of those designed relations. And in the absence of being really known and still accepted, we resort to plastic perfection and small boxes. In the Garden of Eden, they didn't have plastic, so they used fig leaves. Get my point? We hide as a result of our sin. But friends, despite the fact that Jesus conquered sin on the cross, we are still hiding behind our fig leaves. Empty. We still believe that we have to be perfect before we can be known. We hide. Is it safer that way? Probably. Is it easier? Most definitely. But is it better? Categorically, no! That's not how community was designed.

So friends, are we willing to break out of the plastic? To expose our nakedness and our shame? Our inability to earn our way to heaven? To claim the righteousness and strength of Christ in exchange for our sins and weaknesses? To know God, and be known by him? To know our brothers and sisters, and be known by them? And maybe, just maybe, to make eye contact with the person on the bus or on the quad, and maybe smile and say:

You are beautiful, friend, and with Jesus' righteousness, you do not need your fig leaves any more.