Guest Post: “Cool Like That”

It’s my pleasure to host one of my dearest blog friends, Alise Wright, editor of Not Alone: Stories of Living with Depression and blogger at Alise…Write! In the year or so I’ve known her, she’s taught me so much about blogging generously and boldly; she’s encouraged me loudly; and she’s shared with me a few hurts and lots more laughter. And at the risk of appearing to have missed the whole point of her guest post, I must assure you: Alise is cool in the very most important ways. –Tamara

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I write a primarily Christian blog. Most of what I write about ties back into my faith. But truth be told, my faith isn’t always completely orthodox. My brain has some big questions and my mouth has a small filter. And sometimes when I write about my faith-related questions, my atheist friends don’t hate it. In fact, they’ve been known to say that some of what I have to say is reasonable, even admirable.

When this happens, some of my fellow Christians will claim that this reaction from those outside of the faith only proves that my goal is to show how hip and with it I am rather than to spread the gospel. Because if there’s one thing we know about good news it’s that it pisses people off and leaves them feeling alienated. If what I’m saying about Jesus makes someone think that he might like them right where they’re at, then clearly it’s not the right Messiah.

Of course, one need only spend a little bit of time with me to realize that promoting my coolness is my sole motivation in life. I offer the following as proof:

• I have a teen-aged daughter. Everyone knows that a 13-year-old child considers her parents the very height of hip and will constantly extol the awesomeness of said parents to anyone who will listen.

• I play in a wedding band. We play Neil Diamond. And Kenny Loggins.

•  I dye my hair. Sometimes I’m so amazingly cool that I leave a stripe of grey down the middle, like war paint. Ya’ know, for street cred.

Image is everything with me, from my dented up minivan to the Crocs I’m wearing because I couldn’t find my real shoes under the avalanche of school papers I still haven’t put in the recycling bin.

From what I can gather in my reading the Scriptures, Jesus was also very into promoting his image. He had quite the little following of prostitutes, tax collectors and foul-mouthed riff-raff. He spoke of “loving your neighbor as yourself” and “turning the other cheek” in an eye-for-an-eye world, making him popular among folks who were marginalized and neglected and cast away, who, as we all know, are the real movers and shakers.