Coming off of the previous post, ‘Flow Checkpoint 1’, with a disclaimer of sorts:
Brace yourselves, I’m all over the place on this one.
Fair warning, this is DEFINITELY for myself than it is for anyone else.
So why am I sharing? I don’t know.
Oh, I’m really glad to see you here tonight, in that Brioni suit which is the mark of the lawyer who is successful at everything that doesn’t really matter. No. You are, no doubt, exactly where you are supposed to be now. There’s no shame in not being able to hack it at the highest levels of the real game, but the revisionist history – that’s for your wife at home, not for the man who fucking knows better. – Paul Giamatti as Chuck Rhoades Jr.
Your father may have talked shit about me and the way I went about earning. But he bit off plenty of big chunks from my sheet when it came bonus time. And, yeah, sure, while he was a killer gin player at five cents a point, when the partners upped the stakes to a dollar, they mopped the fucking floor with him because he was a piker who couldn’t handle the pressure when the stakes were high.– Damien Lewis as Bobby Axelrod
Both lines are from the legendary Showtime Series Billions, and I never thought to bring these two quotes in particular, together… because, looking at both of them, I’m being led to learn some pretty valuable lessons from power – for myself, and for my future wife and children.
Actually, before I even get to that, let me go ahead and top all of this with a discussion I had last night. One of our soon-to-be regular members of the congregation wanted to talk to me about something, and she eventually reached out with a message through Facebook. When the message came through I was already past the introduction of Bad Boys For Life, but her question was something I thought couldn’t wait until the next day.
She was ‘confused’ regarding if ‘secular’ music could be played or sung in ‘holy’ places like the church. After clarification, she showed me screenshots of posts and messages from other pastors. The posts stated that we shouldn’t allow the devil to ‘infiltrate worship in churches’ because it’s blasphemy of the Holy Spirit; And we shouldn’t use ‘secular’ music in our Facebook posts. She also mentioned that the other pastors she listened to, at a church she goes to I guess, says that if you listen to ‘secular’ music, you’re only ‘pretending’ to serve God.
I zeroed in on clarifying what it really means to blaspheme the Holy Spirit – it is ultimately refusing to believe in Jesus Christ. I based this on Hebrews 10:29, also resisting the words and works of the Holy Spirit in Acts 7:51.
With regards to ‘infiltration of worship‘, I responded with John 10:28, where Jesus says to us that nothing can snatch us away from His hand. The emphasis on the infiltration implies that worship or anything that is of Christ and His finished work is easily ‘infiltrated’, and that simply isn’t true. I mentioned yesterday how only an Eternal Savior can give an Eternal Salvation, which, well, as we say in marriage solemnization, ‘(let) no man separate(s)‘.
With regards to the message, I told her that this was the first time I heard of a minister claiming that we’re only pretending to serve God if we continue to listen to ‘secular’ music. I responded to her by asking, who could know the heart? We are in no position to judge who’s pretending, and who walks the talk. Ultimately, only God knows the hearts of men (Psalm 44:21).
Finally, I’d like to mention that I also shared my take on ‘secular’ music, and worship – or, well, to be honest with you, I could have gone deeper, but I decided to just pull up Scripture and let that do more of the talking. I mentioned one of my favoritest verses: 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 8:38-39
I told the lady that, ideally, it would be nice if we only had praise and worship playing in church, as appropriate. However, I personally take no offense if a ‘secular’ song was played every now and then.
Why? First, no matter what we do or what happens to us, we are thankful because we are always with God, and He is always with us – not because of our consistency, not because of what music we listen to and what we avoid, but because of Christ’s finished work. I went even further by saying that, because we are so thankful for what Christ has done, we no longer think about what separates us from God (because it will never happen), but we take it further by wondering how everything (whether we brand it as ‘secular’ or not) reminds us of our Savior.
I thought I’d lead in with this correspondence before I started talking about those lines by Chuck and Bobby… because as the following verses were mentioned in said conversation, I believe they also apply to what I think we’re going to arrive at from the two lines I quoted. The verses are:
“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. 1 Corinthians 10:23
“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 1 Corinthians 6:12
Our output as human beings can be separated into two things – Walk and talk. Words and actions.
Chuck and Bobby were pretty clear that there truly are actions that are not helpful, and there are actions that do not build up. The former was pretty brutal in calling out Lonnie (who thought he was being subtle in his mockery); He lashed out with finesse, first calling out his subpar choice of clothes before going straight for the jugular, calling him someone who is successful at everything that doesn’t really matter. Axelrod, on the other hand, was equally brutal – not calling out his adversary, but going deeper by calling out his father, who bit off plenty of big chunks from (his) sheet – essentially telling the boy that his father wasn’t exactly the man of integrity that he apparently thought he was.
The two also called out the same people for their words – their words that were not helpful, their words that do not build up. Going further down Chuck’s surgical attack against Lonnie, who was still subtly yet visibly hurt by the jab at his Brioni suit, he brought things home by calling him out for the revisionist history he assumes (correctly, most likely) Lonnie tells his wife – for the record, that is certainly not a place I’d like to be in, to lie to my own wife to make myself look good and feel good. Axe went even more personal in saying that not only was his adversary’s father questionable in the integrity of his actions, but he wasn’t exactly honorable and even more hypocritical by pointing out that he talked shit about (him) and the way (he) went about earning.
Now going back to the question of the lady I spoke to, I didn’t exactly tell her that we absolutely shouldn’t play non-worship songs; Remember, I told her that instead of naming things ‘secular’ or not – rather, the mindset we have prioritizes trusting and thanking God, and flowing as a result. The songs will come and go, but we will continue to flow with God.
It’s the same thing with faulty words, and unprofitable, even detrimental actions – They’ll come and go, and we’ll probably be the ones doing the actions, and saying the wrong words, but the priority remains that we are always with God, and we are always flowing with Him.
One final point which I believe is true, even if they were spoken by fictional characters, is the very real possibility that, well, we may see others not being able to hack it at the highest levels of the real game… and/or, the way the world works would reveal how we could definitely be piker(s) who couldn’t handle the pressure when the stakes were high.
My initial response to this (besides ‘whoa-ing’ in awe) was to tell myself that I should be ready for when the stakes are high. Or I should already anticipate the real game and its highest levels. That it was up to me to endure, and to end up as legends, as Chuck Rhoades Jr. and Bobby Axelrod were made out to be legends.
However, while ‘dissecting’ all this, and in the light of my discussion last night, well, I realized that it really wasn’t up to me to say when the stakes are high.. and our going into the highest levels of the real game probably wouldn’t be according to our projections and our time table. I’m thankful for the meditations we’ve had during the last quarter of last year, because we were left with something that applies to all humanity, and especially for us in the body of Christ.
No matter how we may be ‘secular’, or ‘holy’, no matter how we are with our words and actions… No matter if we see ourselves living it up in the high-stakes poker tables or languishing with the rest of the folks in the penny slot machines, or no matter where we actually are when it comes to ‘levels’ of power – We would do our best to trust God and to thank Him, to thank Him and to trust Him, and to flow with Him.
In fact, just as mountain climbers burden their backs to nearly their breaking point with oxygen tanks if only to reach and stay on the summit of Mount Everest, so we should all be trusting and thanking God, and flowing with Him, more and more the ‘higher’ we go.
And one more thing, in our flowing with God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), He leads us to what is helpful, so we naturally flow away from ‘talking shit’ and needing to create ‘revisionist history’; and I believe He leads us to what is beneficial, so what we do matters and adds the most value, and we aren’t wasting our time in being successful in everything that doesn’t matter.
Putting all of this together, I suppose that my point is that we shouldn’t be prioritizing what’s secular, what’s ‘holy’. And, if we’re really being honest about ourselves and about God’s absolute power and wisdom, we should recognize that He’s the One who’s in charge of determining what words and actions are beneficial in our lives.
Everything is lawful, but the higher we go, the clearer we see what is beneficial and what dominates us. The conclusion of the matter is that, no matter who we are, no matter what we say, what we do, or where we are… it’s ALWAYS to our benefit to trust in the Lord, to thank Him, and to flow with Him.
I’m just churning all of these posts out, and I’m just thankful for you, especially if you happen to just keep reading all this chicken scratch. I’ve been learning. I hope you’re learning too. But most of all, I just pray that you are blessed, and that you would just continue to see Christ and His finished work applied and bursting forth in your own life.
With all this said, I end with the usual: Until the next post (which I predict will be coming very soon, as I don’t think I’m done writing today), may the Lord continue to bless us all. For the glory of His name, today and forever. Amen. Amen.
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