Culture and Grief

I've been grieving for my culture this week for a couple of reasons.

1. I watched a profound film from 1976 called Network. It made me never want to watch television again. It's sad and unnerving to know that a film made 33 years ago speaks so well into today's television-crazed culture.

It's sad when a Jon & Kate plus 8 book is sold in our gospel book stores, and people buy it because they choose into that reality. What good news is this? What truth is this?

2. I saw something on Facebook that I never should have seen, and never ever want to see again. We've all seen dating relationships spark and then fizzle over Facebook, all with the changing of one's relationship status. This week, however, I witnessed the brokenness of a faltering marriage crumble, all in the public forum. My heart broke for both people involved, as it breaks when someone you love suffers. I wanted to delete my account and remove any and all connections with that damned internet-reality because of what it has done to our methods of interaction, communication, and reconciliation. A status update and a comment section have become our marriage counsellors. Mediated communication becomes our main course of communication. I myself have performed the same atrocities of beginning or ending a relationship via an email, rather than person to person.

And yet, despite this chorus of shattering clay pots that I have witnessed, I am meant to be a beacon of restoration, redemption, and renewal for my culture, and so I abide.

Some days are easier than others though.