Living Into Reality

Rewind to a week ago: I am at orientation for my new job, and about to watch two hours worth of new-trainee informational videos.  

I hate these cheesy things.... Everyone is way too excited to be at work. They never use real employees either, always actors. Maybe they're afraid a real employee would snap mid way through and tell the un-expecting newbies how it really is! No, they're always a group of well groomed theater students, anxious to play the role of "average-working-stiff Joe". 

I get the sense from these videos that job training production companies took a real hit after 99': since none of them seem to take place after that year. Everyone's always named "Chris", "Brittany" or "Ryan" - those really overused day time television names popularized in that era. Plus, you can tell they're just on the cusp of being required  to include minorities in every representation of corporate life. 

"Hi, I'm Ryan!"

"I'm Brittany!"

"And I'm Rasheed!"

Your brain has to play a quick round of which of these things is not like the other...

The worst part has to be the dialogue. It generally tends to be overly scripted and formal: "So Brittany, how can I make sure our customers feel looked after?" "Well Chris, I'm glad you asked..."

Who talks like this? 

One fact every employee whose ever watched these videos know, is most of your knowledge won't come from the description of what it's like to work at such-and-such, it will come thru experience. Like college, it's helpful, but ultimately you learn the most when you're out in the real world. 

If there is a "worst part" about these videos, then the best part has to be the reenact-ions. This may include Rasheed clumsily handling money, Ashley frantically searching for an item, or Chad hitting on a fellow worker (but with a name like Chad what choice does he have?). 

My point is this, most representations of how life is really lived, are rarely true to life. Ultimately they fail in their attempt at realism by offering easy answers to difficult questions. Assuming if a certain sequence of steps is followed, you will be successful. Unforeseen variables factor in, but there is always a way to untangle ourselves from them and get it right 100% of the time. 

But life isn't like this, is it? 

As someone who has 24 years experience living, my answer is no. 

It would be nice though, wouldn't it? To have a process ensured to solve problems... 

I'm convinced this is the brilliance of American cinema: in 1hr 30 minutes or less, they introduce a problem -wacky antics ensue- and by the end everything is alright again. 

He finds what he was missing.

She gets her job back. 

They reconcile... 

All is as it should be. 

Reality is much more complicated. It doesn't clean itself up nicely. It has loose ends that never get resolved. Not everyone acts like you wish they would. 

As for this member of society, I'm tired of the lie. I wish we would all stop pretending everything is under our control. Then maybe we wouldn't feel so blindsided all the time. It's like the line all parents say to their children, "who said life would be fair?" 

I think Christians are guilty of this charade. If you just have enough faith... If you just believe hard enough, work hard enough, or give more - you will always be joyful and prosperous. Where do we get this idea? In the bible God never gives people easy answers. Not once does Jesus tell his disciples life will get easier if they follow him. He says the opposite in fact: 

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” - 2 Cor. 12:9 – 10

Saint Paul doesn't say delight when hardship and persecution have passed. Paul says he will delight in his weakness. How do you do that? I want that. 

When the church stops giving easy answers and starts helping people figure out how to be joyful even in this, is when the church will be relevant again. 

When bible studies and sermons stop looking like job training videos, and start looking like the Gospel, is when the church will be Christ in the flesh. 

I for one am not perfect. I don't know how to foolproof my life. I am constantly getting myself into messes I don't know how to get out of. And when this happens, I need my church to encourage me, walk through it with me, and give it to me straight. 

Because that -I believe- is what God does. The Creator lets life unfold as it will, but promises to go through it with us if we allow Him. Love is the consolation prize for a perfect life. 

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

- Romans 8: 35-39