The Spirit of Cool

Admit it, you want to be cool. We all do, me especially. Recently I have been reading this book called "Blessed are the Uncool" by Paul Grant, "Living Authentically in a World of Show". There is so many good things I want to share with you about this book about cool, but I'll just tell about the first half of the first chapter.

We all try to be cool, in what we wear, how we act and what we do. Cool is not innocent, though. It can alienate us from community, family and God. We're so attuned to cool we can hardly imagine life without it. But what we need to understand is that cool doesn't reside in objects or people; it is a tool that can be wielded, but more than often it wields us. This book, he says, is an attempt to image life without cool: it is a search for a better way, an uncool we can live with; an uncool that will free us up to live healthy, authentic and God-fearing lives.

Paul Grant defines cool as -"cool is the private performance of rebellion for rebellions sake."

• Cool is private- it is individualistic from beginning to end. Membership to it is less about faithful friendship and more about excluding outsiders.
• Cool is performance- cool exists to show off to an uncool crowd. It doesn't care about the past or future, only the present, since performance is always immediate.
• Cool is rebellion- cool communicates categorical disrespect for authority. Cool accepts no limits, no ethics, instead it insists on individual authority.
• Cools rebellion for it's own sake- normal rebellion ends when the conflict is resolved. Not so with cool: cool shows universal contempt for authority, extending across all space and time. Cool is never done being cool.

Grant ends the chapter with saying that Christians are far richer than the empty bravado behind cool because our story is a great story: a God dies to give us life in abundance. And once we begin to live uncool, our story will get even sweeter!

To Glorify God?

Of late, I have been thinking about what it means to glorify God. My life's goal has always been to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. When anyone asks me what I live for, or what is speech club, and other things I do, all about I say- "To glorify God".
It has become my life's goal without ever really being there. What I mean is- "am I doing all that I do for the glory of God?" I say it, but do I really do it. What does it mean to glorify God in all that I do?

Psamls 86:12- "I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever." Glorify God forever...just think about it. How can we glorify Him? Do we glorify Him?

"May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God." Rom. 16:5-7.
As a church we are to welcome each-other as Christ did us so that we may glorify God. Unbelievers see God through us, we as a Church, as believers in Christ, are to show God and glorify Him to the unbeliever.

Ways we may do this is in our dress. How we look outwardly.
"For do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." 1 Cor. 6:20.
In the morning, when you get ready for the day, do you look at what you are wearing and ask yourself "does this outfit glorify God, or me?" Does how we look show the world that we are Christians? Do our clothes show that we are set apart, a distinct, chosen people of God? Do they reflect Christ through us? All these questions are what we need to be asking ourselves. We may say we want to glorify God, but do we look it?

Another way is in our speech-
"Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Phil. 2:9-11.
Does our speech, and the way we talk, show that we confess Christ as our Lord to the glory of the Father?

Prov. 4:24 says- "Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you." And Prov 19 says- "Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech."
This is not just talking about speech club and how we talk in front of the judges, but rather how we talk on the street, with our friends. Do our words come from self-exaltation or for the glory of God? Does what we say show that we are Christians, and wish to profess Christ as Lord? Do we watch what comes out of our mouths?

The tongue is a powerful thing as James describes. It can either build up or tear down. James 3:9 - "With it (the tongue) we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God." Do you profess the Lord with your tongue, yet not glorify His name when you talk to man? We need to think before we speak.

Let me close with this last verse, 1 Cor. 10:31- "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."
Whatever we do, it is to be for God and His glory.
We cannot just say that we will do all to the glory of God, we must practice it on a daily basis. Saying it isn't going to get us anymore, we have to do it!

Laminin

Col 1:15-17

• "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together."