Picture on the Wall

Last night I was looking at picture that some dear friends had given me.  It was a smaller version of a print they had in the entry way of their home (Which I would frequent while in college because they also fed me-go good food!).  I would often stop and gaze at this picture creating different story lines for the scene it depicted of a field harvester walking down a road at dusk with is sickle over one shoulder.  Now it just so happens that I was upside down at the time of my most recent viewing with my middle daughter flailing across my body in an attempt to "wrestle with daddy."  We were having a great time when the picture caught my eye.  As in times past it sucked me in again.  This time my daughter went with me.  There we are looking at the picture-catching our breath from laughter when she asked me, "Where is that man going daddy?"  Isn't it amazing how a picture can tell a story with out words or sounds? 

When it comes to spirituality, it seems our culture has an eager tendency to stereotype as a means of establishing some boundaries and security while at the same time declaring that, "we are all the same." Our society, our global community is becoming visually intubated at constant mind blowing rate. Because of the resulting cultures' social norms  the message we preach as truth is being engaged from a distance. The “truth” in which Christ-Followers ought to be living is being engaged and tested by the observing minds of teenagers, adults and the collective mind of the culture. The usefulness of even bothering to pay attention to Christ or Christianity is increasingly measured in a language that can speak into their minds without traditional “intentional listening” and be written on hearts without words. Pictures speak without writing or sound.  As the culture observes Christ-followers...what kind of answer do they see in us when they ask the question, "Where are they going?"  Are we really that different?