the status quo is a bully

I have this friend. Well I would say he's a little more than a friend, because he's much like a brother to me. We've only been friends for around a year but he is one of those rare people that come into your life and you know instantly that you are supposed to journey with them. You’d think we’ve been friends for years.

This friend and I make a point of getting together, having a chat and exchanging ideas on a regular basis. One day we were downtown having a tea when I started sharing my frustrations with our societies addiction to consumerism, selfishness, greed and wastefulness. If any of you know Kelly and I you’re well aware that we find value and biblical direction in things like recycling, living simply, buying local, intentional community, handcrafting, natural childbirth, creativity, peace, justice and the like. The frustrations that I was expressing to my friend stemmed from two areas.

The first area of tension was with our culture and the Churches acceptance of what seems to be the antithesis of what Kelly and I (and many others) believe to be biblical values for how we should interact with others and this earth. You know all that bible stuff about loving others, sharing our coats, breaking bread, blessing peacemakers and what not.

The second area of tension was how much Kelly and I actually feed this system. We are guilty on a daily basis and largely due to sheer laziness/business. I am a firm believer in practicing what I preach so I formally apologize for being a hypocrite sometimes.

Anyway, I was expressing these frustrations and that segwayed into a conversation about how when we choose to live countercultural, when we choose to love our neighbor well, live simply, share our things and take care of the environment, we are often labeled as hippie, liberal, artsy fartsy, tree hugger or just plain crazy. Part of the tragedy is that these labels come out maliciously and are ill intended. I believe this happens because you are for one, threatening their lifestyle or two, they know the right things to do but are to lazy to do them. Anger often comes out of self-hate. Whatever the reason may be for how people respond, it is painfully clear that there is a status quo and you are not meeting it.

In the middle of my venting rant my friend stopped me and said, " You know I'm not very wise, but occasionally I have something to offer that resembles wisdom. In my experience the status quo is a bully. If you step out of line it will knock you back in."

Just brilliant and so true.

We went on to discuss that yes the status quo is a bully and if you refuse its pressures you might just get beaten up or thrown out of class. Being bullied by the status quo is or should be reality for followers of Jesus. Jesus didn't meet the status quo, so I'm not surprised that his followers wouldn’t either.

Newton's third law states that, "for every action (force) there is an equal and opposite reaction (force." This is good news because for every community of people that buy into the status quo, there is another community of people who are waiting to accept, love and cherish the destitute, the disgusting; the disenchanted and disengaged weirdo’s like us. Being a good neighbor is about embracing your inner outcastness.