In this year’s final issue of Christ and Pop Culture Magazine, our authors look to classic Christmas tales, newer interpretations of favorite stories, and unlikely holiday viewing choices to remind us of the intangible truths wrapped up in our Christmas traditions.
“Further up and further in” is an imaginary concept, informed by legend and myth, and also Scripture. These are invitations for all to partake in bigger experiences, conversations, joy, and peace.
Clinging to my perspective while reading endangers my practice of reading as a method of gaining insight.
For creators and the participants both, there lies a danger in loving a story to its own detriment. A perverse love fails to love a story for the good within it, but rather desires it to go on and on, never ending.
Good stories point us to Christ—to who He is, what He loves, what He’s done, and what He’s yet to do.
We are called not to stay as we were found or as we wish we had been found, but to grow in spiritual maturity and knowledge of the Gospel; to remain focused on the past is to refuse to grow spiritually.
In spite of our drive to speed up growth and reach the goal of faith, perhaps the real goal is to trust the process. Rather than an object to be controlled, we can enjoy the blessing of time as a gift.
In this issue of Christ and Pop Culture Magazine, we take a look at humanity’s efforts to turn back and fast forward time, often to alleviate our own immediate suffering.
In essence, “What are my rights?” is private and individual. “What do we owe one another?” is personal and communal. It’s to shift from “What do I deserve?” to “What is best for us?”
We’ve forgotten (or refuse to see) that we are better because of our diversity, because we are a nation of immigrants, and because our collective experiences make us stronger.
And that’s real soul music. It assumes God is within the reality of life—all of your life. Dancing and dating are in the same universe as politics and poetry—this is all God’s world, anyways.
If we reap what we sow, shouldn’t we pay more careful attention to where we invest our time and efforts? Let’s look at that together in this issue of Christ and Pop Culture Magazine.
Like Rory Williams in Doctor Who, we are called to show up in the difficult places, called to be near broken people and called to uncomfortable situations.
The film’s intentional depiction of an all too real history invites reflection on the nature of the conscience and urgency of becoming a misfit.
We all, especially Enneagram Fours, must not sacrifice the sacredness of the mundane on the altar of self-actualization.
Simply upholding these tragic hero figures as warnings ultimately cheapens our understanding of both human depravity, and, more consequently, the extent of grace.
