Counter-Community

My hometown has a monthly art walk. I try to participate once a year. Last time, one little girl pointed at one of my drawings and said to her dad, “I don’t like that one; it’s creepy.” To which I replied, “Unfortunately, many people choose to live like that, but they need just as much love and understanding as everyone else.”

The drawing itself is about how people often wear their emotional wounds like an identity. For example, the alternative fashion of counterculture movements. The psychology of this is actually a camouflage. In other words, they are controlling how they are being judged. If you believe you’re going to be judged anyway, it’s easier to take if it’s just for something superficial, as opposed to what’s really going on inside. Rejecting the broader community in favor of a group identity of an alt culture built on mutual resentment. In the case of emotional scars, they can be too much to hold in indefinitely, but also too painful to face head-on. So external signs of melancholy can ultimately be a superficial way to cope. Is this part of the reason why Jesus said. . .

“Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.” -John 7:24

There is often a huge disconnect between the public and private self. This incongruence is often not as cut and dry as we assume either. Hence the need to look closer.

Still, isn’t the good news of the gospel about seeking and saving the lost? Do we foolishly assume that the lost always openly own this and ask for help? Never hiding their brokenness behind a virtual mask. Which begs the question. Are we failing our community by accusing and criticizing mere appearances? Rather than trying to understand the hurting person behind the false self. Are we like that little girl telling them, I don’t like this one; they're creepy?

The Visual PARABLEist