For this weeks post I would like to take a couple of moments to coin a phrase. At least that was my intention before I preformed an extensive search of all available writing the world has ever known in order that I might claim this unique phrase as my own. (In other words I used quotation marks in the google search engine.) Sadly, I was not the first to use this phrase but the writing I found it buried within is obscure enough that I feel confident that I will be the one to revitalize it with modern day relevance and give a vocabulary to the soul wrenching ache inside every person’s heart as they search for a word that express their innermost disgust when they encounter a situation despicable enough to give utterance to such feeling (a confidence that can only be expressed through an insanely long sentence).
The phrase itself consists of two words, each seething with cultural connotations that point specifically towards an attitude immediately recognizable within Christian community and the generation of 20 and 30 somethings that delight in signifying that their relevance to the world stems from their ability to adopt a posture of…. wait for it….. “retrospective snobbery.”
Yes I am talking about the fact that I did listen to Audio Adrenaline when I was young. I rapped along with Stephen Curtis Chapman during his song Got To Be Tru. I had every Carman tape ever released and thought Jesus getting into a boxing match with Satan was about the coolest thing I had ever heard of!
A posture of retrospective snobbery attempts to disown some of those things of our past that impacted us so heavily. It consists of labeling them as “lame” or “uncool” for the purpose of appearing relevant or in sync with the trends and dissenting attitude prominent in the today’s culture.
Rather, we should consider these things valuable pieces of our past and not be embarrassed by how committed to them we really were. We should recognize the impact they had on our spiritual growth and understand that God was working in our lives in a unique way at a unique time. To speak of that unique time in pejorative terms, because these things are not cool by today’s standards, is to undermine the work of the Spirit.
Sure God is doin’ a new thang now but that doesn’t mean past revival in the land should be forgotten and our commitment to be Jesus’ hands and feet was any less significant than our trendy music and worship of today.
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