Christianity, La La Land and Elevator Music

In one of my favorite scenes in the movie La La Land, Emma Stone looks at Ryan Gosling and says, “I should probably get something out of the way. I hate jazz.”

Gosling can’t believe it and takes her immediately to a jazz club.

When I saw this clip in La La Land, I thought to myself, “that’s probably most people’s experience with Christianity.” It feels like the elevator music that’s always playing in the background. You don’t fully understand what’s going on and everyone is talking over it.

Gosling says, “Ok. I think that’s part of the problem. You can’t just hear it; you have to see it to understand it.”

I think it’s the same with Christianity. It’s so very deep and rich and yet comes across to so many people as bland and boring to people who don’t understand it.

Most of the things people dislike in life, they only have a superficial knowledge of.

If we have to develop palates to understand music and food and art, why wouldn’t we have to do the same with religion?