Contibuting to the Conversation

"We need to look as Christians at the stories that contemporary culture is telling by learning how to discern and evaluate perspectives in these representations of life in God's world. And as Christians we also need to create popular art that shows what it means to live everyday life in God's world, while others consume and eavesdrop on our contribution to the cultural conversation."
-Bill Romanowski, Eyes Wide Open, page 19

This quote presents a wonderful picture of how we're supposed to interact with the world around us. I love the idea of culture as a conversation. I think Christians can sometimes be like those people who butt into conversations with something totally irrelevant and off-the-wall. No one likes that! Especially when you're talking about something that's important to you.

We shouldn't be interrupting the "conversation" with nice, Christian-sounding cliches. We need to be contributing to the "conversation" with words that are meaningful and relevant to the world around us.

The only way to truly engage in a conversation is to listen first. That's why it's so important for us to pay attention to "the stories that contemporary culture is telling us." These stories are "representations of life in God's world." They may not show things the way God intended them to be, but the people who are telling the stories are telling them for a reason, and we need to listen. Then after we listen, we need to reply with our side of the story--not in a way that is condescending, but in a way that is honest and real.