And yet, and yet…

As you may know, I’ve been working on a manuscript moving toward publishing dealing with the topic of Metamodernism. If you look earlier on this blog, you’ll find more posts about it. But yesterday I had a pretty poignant image about Metamodernism stemming from the process of taking down the decorations from our recent Kids’ Bible Camp (VBS).

If you’ve ever done a Kid’s Camp, you know one of the eternal balances to be struck comes from hanging up decorations. We want to make sure that the decorations stay up, but at the same time if the adhesion is too firm it’ll scar the wall behind. I know our Director of Operations is always perturbed when duct tape or nails are used on the walls; on the flip side, it’s always annoying after a day of working to put up a bunch of decorations to find them piled at the foot of the walls because the masking tape we used just couldn’t keep it stuck.

It occurred to me yesterday when struggling to get a new kind of adhesive off the wall called Alien Tape (took the skin off my fingertips…bleh), that this same issue is at play in our current generation when it comes to truth. As opposed to the previous generation that did not care for institutions or bases and resorted to deconstruction to get what they wanted, our generation now struggles on making a decision. What I mean is that when it comes to choosing a truth (as the Metamoderns do), we struggle in both wanting the truth we choose to stick. And yet we’re also afraid to damage the institution that braces it up.

This is a sharp thought to ponder when watching the lines walked by protestors that call for the freedom of Palestine and against the actions against Iran while ignoring that if they were placed under the authority of Palestine or Iran they’d likely be jailed for practicing the freedom of speech and equality for women. Others struggle warring against the current system of what they call capitalism while being afraid of losing the welfare state that has propped them up. Others struggle in choosing to hold to the truths of Scripture but are afraid to offend those around them.

This is the plight of the Metamodern: we want to adhere to truths, but fear losing the institutions that prop them up. It is the core of our crisis of commitment. It reminds me of the title of a book that was written by David Crowder: Everyone Wants to Go To Heaven But No One Wants to Die.

So what is the solution to this? Simply put, for those of us living in a Metamodern mindset, we have to choose to lead. In a culture that craves truth but fears commitment, we as believers must choose to lead toward that which we know is true.

Case in point: a moment ago one of my daughters sat down next to me and asked what Metamodern means. I answered, “It means wanting to choose a truth; but not knowing which one to choose a person will change what they think is truth often according to what’s happening.” I then asked her what her response was to that. She said, “Ichthyus.” If you’re unfamiliar with what that is, it was the Ancient Christian symbol that Christians would draw to one another to indicate that they were believers in an environment that was radically persecuting the Church. They chose ichthyus which is the Greek word for fish. It was an acrostic meaning “Jesus Christ Lord and Savior.”

I thought that was a wonderfully insightful answer from my younger daughter. We choose to write truth no matter what the outside context. Where the world rages against the shallowness of the lies they’ve chosen to believe, we answer Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, fishes drawn in the sand, hope for tomorrow and love for one another. In a world of constant change, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

Write truth today friends. Lead and love in truth and change your world.