cool.

Cool is a drug.

I'm addicted.

You're addicted.

We're hooked.

Apple. Indie music. Pearl snaps. Barack Obama. LOST. Cardigans.  Wayfarers. Starbucks... better yet, independent coffee. Pea coats. Photo Booth. North Face. brb. Vintage. Sarcasm. Twitter. Plaid. Facial hair. Creativity. Long boarding. FML. Indie films. Scarves. lol. Colbert. Toms. Garageband. Gadgets, V-necks. YouTube. Stripes. Frisbee. Tattoos. Blublockers. Chacos. Going Green. Moleskine. Playing guitar. omg. Bedhead. The Office. Emergent. Chucks. iPhones. Concerts. Wes Anderson. Knit caps. Whole Foods. Youth. Art. Celebrity. Irony.

We sell our souls to these things... Why? Because they are Cool.

People like people who like these things.

So we seek out things that are well-liked by the common populous, yet not quite too well-liked. Because if it's too popular then clearly, it has lost its cool... we don't stand out in the crowd for being Top 40 cool.

That is... if we do want to stand out in a crowd. I'm not sure, we haven't decided yet.

These are the things we have sought out very carefully, arranged them neatly, so that they may define us. We drove our hybrid to Trader Joe's with a specific intention of selecting the most unique, interesting, funny, creative, artistic traits or favorite music, movies, television shows, blogs, and social justice causes from the shelves so that we may consume them, and, hopefully, become what we eat.

We put on Cool. We wear it. We jump through its hoops. We love Cool. 

We primp it, we preen it, we make sure it's well fed, so we are sure to keep searching for the latest and greatest in Cool's world. I loved that song before it was ever on that Apple commercial. It's kind of overplayed now. We parade Cool around as much as possible, every day is a new opportunity for the Westminster of Cool. I'm not sure if I can make it, I'm going to a show later. I'll text you. We build relationships on Cool, the solid rock, so that we may have inside jokes about the things that only you, me, and Cool know about. Did you not see my Tweet about that party? Everyone was there.

We love Cool.

Cool is a drug.

We are hooked on Cool.

Thank God for Cool... 

...... 

Does it work that way? 

Does that seem right?

Did God beget Cool?

Do we believe that the God who created us naked and unashamed was happy when we realized we were exposed? Was He happy when we started covering ourselves so the watchful eyes of man wouldn't judge us so harshly? Was He happy the day we started seeking to impress each other instead of Him? Did he cry when we first began to gather our self-assurance from men, and not Him?

We we lost that intimate, face-to-face, all consuming relationship with God because of our first sin... Cool was born.

Okay, sure, so Cool has a place in my heart, maybe a place with a flat-screen TV and an extensive Blu-ray collection, but it could never take... it could never take the place of... 

of God?

... but I'm kidding myself... I know it could.

I know it has.

The fact is, Jesus' episode of Cribs would be pathetic.

At best, a manger... at worst, twelve guys and maybe a borrowed donkey.

No in-home theater, no stainless steel appliances, no pool, no Escalades on DUB's, nothing... 

pathetic.

Jesus was not Cool.

Jesus was what may arguably be the opposite of Cool.

Jesus was... Alive.

And I'm not just talking in the sense that we believe that Jesus is alive. 

Indeed he is alive, but, in this sense, I am talking about the physical, walking-around-talking Jesus as he appeared on earth.

Jesus was the epitome of what it means to Live. He came to show us what it means to be Alive... not what it means to be Cool. 

In fact, he was so Alive that despite the fact that he lacked any physical features to draw people to him, even though he lacked all the glitz and glamour of the time... the finest designer jeans, the latest $80 Urban Outfitters shirt, the iPhone, the new Fleet Foxes album... he was so Alive that people were drawn to him by the thousands. Not just collective thousands over the span of his three-year ministry... thousands at time. We know the stories. We know how they longed just to see him, just to touch his cloak... his dusty, dirty, tattered cloak.

Yet he had nothing of the world to offer them. No house, no money, no food, no gifts, no Cool... just Love, just Grace, just Mercy... 

...Just... 

...Just Life...

That is what it means to be Alive.

Jesus was the definition of Life in full, Life as it is intended to be lived.

Jesus was Alive. 

So, may we let go of the the treasures of this earth... the constant weight and burden of Cool. May we realize that Cool is a drug, and it has us by our hands and feet. We are dancing clumsily as Cool pulls our strings, our puppet master we hardly realize we are living to serve. May we yearn to have these strings broken. 

The weight of my arms will be heavy on my own, Lord, don't cut them yet! But God I want to know what it's like to dance on my own now, cut the strings, free me from my constant tangle. My arms may be heavy, but in You they will be lifted. I'll be light again. I will float on a breeze. I will know what it means to dance, not like it used to be, not like it was when man told me to move. But now. Now Lord I will be inspired to dance. There won't even be a choice to make. I will move because your Beauty makes me move. Because your Grace makes me move. Because your Love makes my heart beat in time with the songs the angels are singing, Father. It's a beautiful song, like a siren's song to my soul, I am drawn to its majesty. It would be so good to dance. It would be so good to Live. 

Cut the strings, Lord. I'm ready to dance, I'm ready for Life. Real. Life.

Amen.