Back at the hotel – after a long day of handing out business cards and vying for strangers’ attention – my colleague took a sip from his cocktail, leaned over to me and said, “You know what would make you a badass?”
Before I could respond, he answered his question, “A business card with no title.”
I laughed…and then thought it was brilliant.
Phuc Tran gave a compelling TED talk in which he told the story of his family’s escape from Saigon in 1975. It was an incredible story, layered in luck and good fortune. Phuc, now in his 30’s and raised in America often wonders about what could’ve gone wrong during his family’s escape from Vietnam? What if they had boarded the wrong bus (that ran off a cliff)? What if they had gotten caught? What if they were killed in crossfire?
What if…what if…what if?
As a millenial within the church, I get grouped into a category that, at large, is being marked by a movement forsaking material wealth and modern amenities, forming communities of like-minded, environmentally conscious, bike riders, home gardeners, artists, musicians, writers, and activists. It’s a culture in pursuit of authenticity within a fabricated world, boldly bannering a “back to the basics” mantra of minimalism. Embedded in this movement is a re-appreciation for simplicity and a move away from the commercial, “worldly materialism” that is entrenched around us.
There’s innocence to such a pursuit and a virtuous idealism that is envied and applauded. “Look at them,” people often muse, “they’re going to change the world.”
Bravo mister hipster.
But, at the risk of offending the young and restless, hip trends, forage diets and two-buck chuck; and at the risk of demeaning the noble commitment to the simple life and the campaign against wealth and materialism; we inevitably stumble across a simple question:
What are we to make of Maybachs and malbecs?
Welcome to humdrum – gospel for the everyday – gospel that uniquely settles in the most routine and ordinary of places; gospel that strolls down aisle three at the grocery store and sits in traffic on Main Street; gospel that weaves itself into the morning coffee-run and the late night at work.
It’s this gospel, gospel for the everyday, that actually awakens life and finds its purpose in the mundane.
humdrum 