Shadows In The Rain « TheNorEaster
So I just got done reading this post and it took my breath away and gave me hope like you wouldn’t believe, finally I find that there are people who are able to see beyond appearances to God’s Grace that has the potential to exist in all of us. My views on this started…oh I don’t know, probably around the beginning of college a few years ago when I declared myself to be…………Goth. And Christian. And I started surfing around on the web looking up exactly that, Christian Goths and found some breathtaking and beautiful ideas and people and I began to realize an interesting thing.
As the visual people we tend to be we have the penchant then to judge people based on how they look or act. We never give them the chance to show us who they really are. We see and we write them off, either as hopeless and lost or as worthy of our time. Either way they get written off. We put them in boxes and in so doing put ourselves and our God in a box. It really started to eat at me, especially as I donned black clothes and corsets and people looked at me differently. I started to think about what they would do if they found out that this little Goth was also a Christian. Well, that’s fairly easy, most of them would probably think I wasn’t serious about it, that it was just something I grew up doing so that’s what I called myself; Christian. I may not always dress in black, but I still consider myself to be Goth. And Christian. And anymore I’m tickled pink (or rather black :D ) by the thought of how scandalized some people would be to learn that I was either and both of those things.
Anyway as I began to realize these tendecies of others (and myself) it led me down an interesting thought path. One day as I was wrestling with the oft asked, never satisfactorially answered question of why bad things happen to us, I came to a startling thought (I won’t say conclusion, because this question will never have a conclusion ’till we are dead) - we only ever get a one-inch view of the world. We don’t get to see the BIG picture. We don’t get to see how ever single action of every person ever acted in the past, present or future are weaved together to create a picture so amazing that if we were given just a glimpse of it while we were still alive we’d go blind.
I don’t like it when people say “everything happens for a reason,” I think it’s a trite and ‘canned’ answer and despite what the speaker may intend does not, in fact, give anyone hope. So, although what I’m saying sounds remarkably like that it is far from it. Shit happens. And it sucks and it hurts and it doesn’t make sense. It may never make sense (until we are dead). I guess what I’m saying is…Don’t judge people because of how they look or act or whatever because you don’t know them and you don’t know what beauty they are contributing to The Picture or, by judging them, what (…) you are contributing.
So yeah, I hope you don’t mind me linking to you NorEaster. And to anyone else……keep being you.
May 11, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Thanks Gothique Fae…I might not ever completely comprehend the Goth culture. My son says my daughter is Goth…she loves to wear black. I think she’s trying to learn how to express herself (13 years old) and hope she chooses another way. I need to hear that Christian and Goth can go together, although I find it hard to understand.
You and NorEaster are stretching me - at times I get very tired of being stretched.
May 11, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Gothique:
Thanks for linking your site to mine. I do find it comforting that someone is willing to challenge perceptions so blatantly because there have been plenty of times that I have had to challenge people’s perceptions.
As strange as it may seem, what I have said in that post goes back to my grandmothers–my father’s mother always loved everyone equally, didn’t matter if you went to grad school or to prison…she loved everybody the same. And my mother’s mother…I smile every time I tell this story, which took place in the 1930s…but my grandmother was walking home from work with a friend. And they passed a prostitute. Well, the woman said, “Just look at her clothes, advertising herself like that!” And my grandmother said, “Do you suppose that’s all she has to wear?” In other words, she wasn’t going to judge.
That’s certainly a good lesson. And it’s just as applicable 70 years later.
Michelle:
This may sound like a “pat answer,” but if you couldn’t handle being stretched…you would have walked away the moment the tension began.
Personally, I’m really hoping you’ll stick around. ;)
May 11, 2008 at 9:51 pm
NorEaster, I’ll stick around…true friends love at all times.
May 12, 2008 at 6:45 am
Michelle:
The Goth subculture is often very complicated and hard to understand, I would encourage you to search Christian Goth and if you can find it there is a website run by a lady called Lady Raven Shadowwinds that does an excellent job explaining what a Christian Goth is and how it is the same and how it is different from just plain Goth.
And don’t worry, you stretch me as well it is hard but worth it in the end :)
NorEaster:
I laughed at your story, your grandmother sounds like she was amazing! And, yes, that is an excellent lesson and I am also glad that you are challenging peoples perceptions, it isn’t always fun but sometimes it pays off to see the lightbulb go off in someones head.
And I’m am very glad that both of you are sticking around. :)
G
May 12, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Michelle:
Thanks. ;)
Gothique:
Yes, my grandmothers were the most amazing women I’ve ever known. And I like seeing the light bulbs go off, too. ;)
May 12, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Actually, I just remembered…there is another Essay on my site that I think you might find interesting, Gothique. I’m afraid I don’t know how to set up the link in a comment, but the Essay is called “The Flood of Alcoholism.” It’s about my good friend, Chris. And the misconceptions he has to endure as an adult child of the foster care system with a disability–and he’s a Christian. Not to mention one of the best friends I’ve ever had.
May 12, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Lady Raven Shadowwinds - I looked her up, she has some great things to say. On another site for Christian Goths (I think that was the name, actually) I ran across a testimony for a very similar name. It was riveting…made me think of my own experiences.
With my “bohemian” ways, I’m beginning to think my daughter gets some of this from me. ;)
No wonder I’ve loved your site…
May 12, 2008 at 6:59 pm
lol, indeed…
May 12, 2008 at 7:13 pm
:D