Ryan
I don’t know who took this photo. I wish I did so I could give them credit, but it wasn’t me.  There is a photo similar to this one however, hanging on the wall in the hallway of the theology department at school. I walk past it every day, and every day I stop to look at it. In the photo, much like this, is a shopping cart, abstractly off to the side of the frame. It is leaning on an old worn out wood fence. Grass has begun to sprout through the blacktop. It is a very nice picture.  But it isn’t the picture itself that makes me stop and think. I guess like any good picture, it is what the image reminds me of, conjures up in my head, that makes me stop. I have been avoiding writing this blog for nearly three weeks now. Every day, thinking about it, but not able to bring myself to the realization of what I have done.  You know, to most of us, shopping carts are never thought of other than as a means by which we facilitate consumerism. I mean think about it, what do we associate shopping carts with? Going to the grocery store? Maybe Home Depot? Macy’s? We see it as an object to be filled. And not filled with anything of meaning or substance, but filled with fluff. With things we want, things that would look good on our bodies, taste good in our mouths. How many times could we honestly walk into a store and never need a shopping cart? But because it is right there at the door we grab it. And because we have as we stroll up and down the isles, we fill it. Ingenious marketing strategy, but are we really that inept as to succumb to the manipulation of a grocery store?  I lived homeless for a time in San Diego. While I was out there, I borrowed a shopping cart from a local grocery store. (we returned it before we came home) But out there it took on a whole new meaning. It became our mobile home. Even with all of our stuff, the cart was never full. Nothing was placed in the cart that was not necessary, and nothing used from the cart that was not a privilege to have. Our cart had a busted wheel, it didn’t push straight and over every crack in the sidewalk it tried to topple over. But we couldn’t just go grab a new one. We didn’t complain. It was our cart. It symbolized who we were, what we stood for, and how we would survive. And we were only there for five days. Imagine what 5 years would have felt like? We are so lost in our own little comfortable worlds of consumerism and self entitlement that we don’t even think about what something like a shopping cart could mean for anyone outside out bubble.  Going with my last blog and Dr. King, how is it that we as Christians measure the temperature of society, instead of transforming the temperature of our ignorance? I rail on the Christian bubble all the time, saying how pathetic it is. The most frequent response I get is “well I don’t think we live in a bubble.” Then I look at the picture of this shopping cart, and I think hell yes we do? And just when we think we are breaking free of that bubble, we start to cool down and become complacent with the way things are again.  “In this world, a man must either be anvil or hammer.” Longfellow said this, referencing the idea that a person is either a molder of society or is molded by society. I think it is time for Christians to start following the one we say we follow, the molder of society, and stop just saying we follow Him. 

I don’t know who took this photo. I wish I did so I could give them credit, but it wasn’t me. 

There is a photo similar to this one however, hanging on the wall in the hallway of the theology department at school. I walk past it every day, and every day I stop to look at it. In the photo, much like this, is a shopping cart, abstractly off to the side of the frame. It is leaning on an old worn out wood fence. Grass has begun to sprout through the blacktop. It is a very nice picture. 

But it isn’t the picture itself that makes me stop and think. I guess like any good picture, it is what the image reminds me of, conjures up in my head, that makes me stop. I have been avoiding writing this blog for nearly three weeks now. Every day, thinking about it, but not able to bring myself to the realization of what I have done. 

You know, to most of us, shopping carts are never thought of other than as a means by which we facilitate consumerism. I mean think about it, what do we associate shopping carts with? Going to the grocery store? Maybe Home Depot? Macy’s? We see it as an object to be filled. And not filled with anything of meaning or substance, but filled with fluff. With things we want, things that would look good on our bodies, taste good in our mouths. How many times could we honestly walk into a store and never need a shopping cart? But because it is right there at the door we grab it. And because we have as we stroll up and down the isles, we fill it. Ingenious marketing strategy, but are we really that inept as to succumb to the manipulation of a grocery store? 

I lived homeless for a time in San Diego. While I was out there, I borrowed a shopping cart from a local grocery store. (we returned it before we came home) But out there it took on a whole new meaning. It became our mobile home. Even with all of our stuff, the cart was never full. Nothing was placed in the cart that was not necessary, and nothing used from the cart that was not a privilege to have. Our cart had a busted wheel, it didn’t push straight and over every crack in the sidewalk it tried to topple over. But we couldn’t just go grab a new one. We didn’t complain. It was our cart. It symbolized who we were, what we stood for, and how we would survive. And we were only there for five days. Imagine what 5 years would have felt like?

We are so lost in our own little comfortable worlds of consumerism and self entitlement that we don’t even think about what something like a shopping cart could mean for anyone outside out bubble. 

Going with my last blog and Dr. King, how is it that we as Christians measure the temperature of society, instead of transforming the temperature of our ignorance? I rail on the Christian bubble all the time, saying how pathetic it is. The most frequent response I get is “well I don’t think we live in a bubble.” Then I look at the picture of this shopping cart, and I think hell yes we do? And just when we think we are breaking free of that bubble, we start to cool down and become complacent with the way things are again. 

“In this world, a man must either be anvil or hammer.” Longfellow said this, referencing the idea that a person is either a molder of society or is molded by society. I think it is time for Christians to start following the one we say we follow, the molder of society, and stop just saying we follow Him. 

Posted 1 year ago