Keep the Weight On

I read a brilliant article by Dan Haseltine, the lead singer for Jars of Clay in the latest issue of Relevant Magazine. I lay in bed on Tuesday morning, beginning to contemplate the intersection of the things God placed in me while I was away with the things God had been speaking and placing within me before I left, and the words of this article grabbed me. Everything within my being cried out, "YES!"

So, I've decided to share a bit of the article with you, and you should definitely run out and purchase the March/April 2006 issue of Relevant Magazine. Haseltine's article is titled "Your Whole Self." (Incidentally, there is also a very good article by John Fischer in this issue, as well as the usual mix of quality material that makes Relevant one of the only print magazines I subscribe to.) I have put my favorite bit in bold print for you, but am amazed by the echo of my own heart and soul in Haseltine's words.

Haseltine writes:
"There is a weight to the Gospel. There is a mass connected to the story of redemption. It is in the dark places - the addictions to pornography, alcohol, drugs, power and control. It is in our propensity to blame and abuse each other, our greed and our depravity. It is the substance of these things that gives us a place to speak about the slow road to recovery.

When we find the Gospel to be true and start to wrestle with the implications, it eventually brings us to a place where we must confront our humanity and know ourselves as both the walking wounded and the perpetually healed.

Because we have chose to speak only about the victory from these things, we are left to promote a gospel that is feeble and moveable at best, rather than one made of stone - one strong enough to withstand the weight of the world and the depravity that is balanced upon its surface. Our gospel is unbelievable because it is only half of a gospel. It is the resurrection without any signs of the crucifixion. I believe there are profound reasons why Jesus still carried the scars from the nails on His hands when He appeared to His friends. He was bringing the entire Gospel to His disciples.

All individuals have things in their lives that make them unique. Most often this part of their story is connected to abuse, addiction, fear or pain. I have come to believe that the things that make us unique are the ways joy enters into our secrets, the ways light exposes our darkness. This is why we choose not to open these parts of our story up to others. Ultimately, it is our redemption that looks unique - it is the way healing comes, how long it takes, who is involved that makes us different.

What I see in the Christian music community and in church culture at large is that we have not been given permission to be ourselves completely. We are not allowed to bring the full weight of who we are into our music conversations, our movies, our pulpits or our church halls. And as I see our church culture striving to take the weight off, I have decided that perhaps it is best to keep the weight on."

Amen.