Either...Or

Several years ago, I met a preacher at a conference in San Diego. We were discussing the creation stories of Genesis when he made a few lights pop on inside my head. We were talking about God declaring pleasure at the goodness of all that had been created. I was thinking pretty one dimensionally about what had been created. Stuff like light, land, lakes, and Llamas were on my creation list. My new friend helped me think through God also creating and being pleased with laughter, art, music, joy, mystery, beer, mullets, etc. We decided that God was pleased with all that had been created. That prior to being sullied by sin, everything was at its essence good.

Chew on that for a few days and you'll start to get a headache. I began to see people and things around me in a new an unexpected light. Before this I lived with the Christian subcultural view of "either..or." Either something was good (sacred) or it was bad (secular). Music, movies, books, aerobics classes, t-shirts, greeting cards, etc. were either good (Christian) or bad (worldly). I realized we treated outsiders in the same way; a person was either for us (Christian) or against us (pagan). So for an outsider to join us, she or he had to admit that we Christians (along with our structures and subcultures) were 100% right and that he/she was 100% wrong .

What if at the core of every one's being there is still some of that goodness left over from creation? I am not advocating a universalist view of salvation, but what if we dropped the either...or worldview and instead searched for common ground as a starting point?

It changes the conversation doesn't it? It changes the conversation radically. Instead of, "We're right and you're going hell", we now are able to search for this common goodness, this common longing for God implanted within each of us. We then can help people see what Jesus is already doing in their lives and that Jesus is the best way to finish the journey that they have already begun.