Black and white

My dad loved black and white movies. Not just the actors, plots, and dialogue. Dad loved the art form.

In the middle of a scene, Dad would ask, "Did you see that?"

"See what?" I would ask.

"See the way the director used that shading to affect the mood."

It wasn't the black or the white that gave the movies "color" most of the time, it was the shades in between.

Isn't life like that, too?

So often we want to make life about the black and white. The absolutes. Do this. Don't do that.

The longer I live, I am realizing that most of life happens in the gray areas. Most of the depth and beauty in life is found in the multitude of shades.

Yes, we need black and white. Without them, there is no gray. But they are not all there is to life.

Gray areas are the thin spaces, places where we can more fully embrace our creativity, our freedom, and our imagination.

But there is risk in the gray. We can mess up. We don't have clearcut "rules". There are no simple answers. But that's the beauty of gray.

We need to be able to mess up, to get it wrong. We need to rely on God to sustain us when we feel unable and show us mercy when we screw up. That's what grace is all about.

Living in a world of just black and white is pretending we have all of the answers.

Living in a world of gray admits that we don't know everything.

Jesus was confronted by some black and white people, the religious leaders who measured their success by following the rules. They asked the disciples why Jesus was eating with sinners, people they called scum.

When Jesus heard this, he said, "Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do." Then he added, "Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: 'I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.' For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners." (Matthew 9:12-13 NLT)

Jesus is not looking for people to live black or white lives, but to embrace the gray, to acknoweldge they are not good enough or wise enough to get it all right. He is seeking people to follow him and find the beauty in life. This is not a license to do wrong or disobey, but rather a call to live beyond our abilities and trust in God to give us strength when we are weak and provide riches (not necessarily in ther form of money) when we are poor; to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Will we blow it? Absolutely.

Will we get it right? Sometimes.

Will God be there? Always.

It's that last answer that frees us to enjoy the beauty in the gray areas of life that terrify those who try to live in only black or white.

Dad was right, when we keep our eyes open, there is great beauty to be found in gray.

shine!

Jason