The Line Between Secular and Sacred Is Gray.
Growing up, religion told me that there are sacred things and there are secular things. If it music, I should not listen to “secular music”, but “Christian music”. If it time with friends, I should never find myself at events like house parties, for those were secular things, but coffee shops, especially Christian ones, were safe places where you could find the sacred.
This led to me the belief that secular music, without mention of God or Jesus, was somehow bad. It also led me to think that drinking alcohol with friends could be “the appearance of evil”, paying no mind to the reality that Jesus’ first miracle was turning water into wine for wedding party guests.
In my late teens, I learned that Celtic Christians from the isle of Iona (now Scotland) held to their own belief of “thin places” — a physical place where the veil that separates heaven and earth is lifted and we are able to glimpse the glory, or presence, of God.
Now that I am in my early thirties, I have taken Jesus’ words, “The kingdom of heaven is within you” (Luke 17:21) to heart and have let this reality (or truth) of the Kingdom of God replace my thinking (or as I say, false belief system) that there are defined lines of “secular” and “sacred” objects, places and people groups.
Trusting Jesus’ words that the Kingdom is within myself and all Christians, I now refer to my daily living, breathing and actions as a “thin place” — where the people around my life should see heaven touch earth because His Kingdom is always unveiled.
The world we are called into is not one where physical places, food, drink and creative expressions are either black or white with defined boundaries — even Jesus’ first-ever miracle of creating wine was for people who were probably already drunk. How the pious never discuss that story is beyond me.
It was by Jesus that we were called into “all the world” and because He declared the Kingdom of Heaven is within you, there is no dark place that light cannot penetrate.
This is the truth revealed to us — there is nothing so secular that the sacred person of Christ cannot touch or someplace so dark Christ cannot go. Don’t let religion, the thoughts of men, and fear keep you from displaying the light you carry within you. For the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:5)
Originally published at www.itsjoelstephens.com on January 23, 2015.
