I am stepping off the path of parenting posts and wadding into culture with this week’s post.
This post was sparked by a couple of items I came across in the past few weeks.
The first was an article sent to me that was about a LGBT gal who decided to leave the political Left because the people associated with this group have begun to attack her for not being “Left” enough. She makes a great point that the LGBT community “has become so obsessed with validating everyone” that it has created an environment of complete madness and idiocy among its community members.
The other item was a Tweet by Darrell B. Harrison’s responding to a Tweet by Eric Mason who Tweeted about a white pastor who has church fund’s for reparations. Harrison has much to say about the “woke” culture has spent more time studying this subject so go check out his blog post Woke Theology. If you want more insight into this subject then go checkout Harrison and Virgil Walker’s podcast Just Thinking to hear more.
Now here’s my two cents.
First, you may be asking what in the world does “woke” mean? I don’t have the time or honestly want to go into all of it right now so here is a quick definition:
“Woke means being conscious of racial discrimination in society and other forms of oppression and injustice.”*
I am not here to debate what is or isn’t “woke” but want to focus on the broader issue of “woke” which I believe is that the “woke” culture is a disease. It destroys something that may have started out as good but eventually corrupts it because it can never satisfy the people involved.
Yes, the “woke” culture seems to be an advocate for the oppressed and abused but what’s the end goal? Reconciliation? But with who and how?
How many times must the offender say sorry, or pay, create laws or rights before the offended party will be happy? It will never happen because once you get one thing you will want something else. You are never satisfied. I am not saying that people who do injustice to others shouldn’t apologize or make amends but rather am pointing out the ridiculousness of the “woke” culture. Saying sorry and asking for forgiveness is not enough with the “woke” culture. They want more.
They are chasing temporal things that do not have any lasting meaning.
“Woke” has become an idol in our culture and like all idols that we chase, it will never satisfy and will leave you emptier then when you started.
“An idol is anything more important to you than God. Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God. Anything you seek to give you what only God can give. Anything that is so central and essential to your life, that should lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.”
-Timothy Keller
An idol is “anything you seek to give you what only God can give.” True peace and reconciliation can only be accomplished with God not by being “woke.”
Is Jesus’ work on the Cross the answer? Does the Cross solve all of our problems? Yes and no.
I say no, because the Cross does not speak directly to all the issues we face in our culture but it does give us a foundation of truth through which we can view all of these issues.
I say yes, because the Cross changes the way we think about the things of this life. It all is going to pass away. All people will face death and spend eternity in either Heaven or Hell. I am not so concerned about getting all my rights taken care of on this earth because in the end they do not matter. They only thing that matters is my answer to the question: who do I say Jesus is?
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
(Go read the full story in Matthew 16:13-20.)
The “woke” culture does not work because it is chasing a moving target and the end goal is not the redeeming work of Jesus but the glorification of man.
With Jesus in the right place in my life then everything falls into line. When Jesus is central in my life, when Jesus becomes the lenses that I look at the world through then everything changes. The focus is no longer about me and my selfish rights but following Jesus.
Jesus said in Luke 9:25
“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?
The answer is a clear “none” because the only way to find true satisfaction is to do what Jesus says earlier in this passage.
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.“
“Woke” culture will never satisfied for the only way to find true satisfaction is in Jesus Christ alone.
“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
-Jesus Christ (John 6:35)
*https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/woke/