Irrelevant

What is relevance? Relevance is ‘trendy,’ keeping with the times. Media needs to be relevant. Celebrities are relevant. As Christians we are not called to be relevant, only to proclaim the Gospel. So this is a confession as much as it is anything else. After reading Nouwen’s In the Name of Jesus I realize that I have chasing relevance. The problem is that relevance is unattainable. It changes on the minute and it leaves people empty. Moreover, as a follower of Christ, it means nothing. There isn’t anything wrong being relevant as long as you never remove your focus from the cross and never compromise the message; possible but difficult, but possible nonetheless. But relevance is so easy to slip into, especially in ministry when we put our reputation and our image above our faithful obedience. I keep telling myself that I’ll share the Gospel as soon as I have enough ‘image.’ When people are familiar with you, they’re more likely to listen to what you have to say seriously, no denying that, but that’s no excuse to be hiding.
I guess like all else it’s subtle. Some people are granted it, some are not. But regardless how much or little we have of it, we shouldn’t be chasing it. It’s not our focus and it’s not something we need by any measure.
The backdrop to all this is my move overseas. People there won’t care what I’ve accomplished or how many friends I have back home or anything at all. I’m just one face in a billion. Literally. But my task isn’t to achieve relevance. It’s faithfulness and obedience.