We've been living without cable TV or regular TV for a couple years now. We gave up the cable out of financial necessity while Chuck was in nursing school, and we eventually gave up the regular TV because it just seemed silly to have to pay for it through the cable company (we tried a digital converter box, but we live near the bottom of a hill and just can't get a good enough signal with it).
At first it was an uncomfortable adjustment. It was hard to give up watching those endless episodes of Deadliest Catch and it's hard to stay current without a news channel. But once we got used to it, it actually turned out just fine. You can eventually stop missing something you don't have and never really needed in the first place. We have Netflix when we want to watch something or I need to play a kids show to get a moment to myself.
All in all, a good call for our family. The only time I truly wish it weren't the case is when there's a storm and I can't get current weather coverage. (I don't know how long they've been doing this, but I was able to live stream the local news during the recent snow storm, so maybe that'll be the solution in the future).
Anyway, it's been particularly good for me to not be quite as exposed to all the news. The news that makes me question my faith in humanity. The news that makes me almost literally hurt at the thought of because of all the suffering people I am powerless to help. And the news stories that make me wonder how on earth I can align myself with the same people who picket people's funerals, who blame hurricanes on the sin of a marginalized people group, and who preach patriarchy as God's chosen system for the world.
Because the visible church is sometimes just noxious and vile. It's not just the "liberal media agenda" painting a picture with only the most damning of stories. Ridiculous, unloving ideas, policies, and behaviors just pervade the American Church. And that's power. Give power to any human or people group over someone else, and things are going to get ugly. The more power the Church has in society, the more ugly it seems to become.
And I know pretty much 99.9% of Christian Americans would be horrified to hear me say any of this. They would say we are being persecuted for our beliefs. That if they don't hold the line on certain issues, that our whole country will go to crap. But I think they are emphatically missing the point.
Because as long as the invisible Church is still going strong, it can't be stopped. And it is truly the most beautiful thing to behold. The boldest acts of love and mercy and grace and forgiveness all happen outside of the public eye. Outside of the traditional walls of the church. If all I knew of the Church was what the media said or what the leaders of the Church were saying (with the exception of this current Pope), I would run as far away as possible as quickly as possible. But what keeps me there, what keeps me compelled to stay present and engaged, is the underground Church. The Church you can't see and never will see unless you are part of it. Unless you've been graced with it's love.
It's the mercy and kindness of a woman who took me into her home as a much-needed safe haven from my parents when I was a teenager. It's the hospitality of another woman opening her heart and home to me while I was away in college. It's yet another woman, again, opening her heart and home to me and my daughter when I just couldn't seem to find my place in the world (or the Church!). It's the group of young moms bringing each other meals when another has had a baby, or lost a family member, or gotten sick herself. It's the moms who make extra breastmilk for a baby they don't even know whose mom is suddenly in the hospital. It's the husband who forgives, yet again, and over and over. I could spend all day every day this week recounting all the ways I've been loved on by the Church and still not get to the end of it. That's Christianity. That's the Gospel. Love God and love your neighbor. Even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard. That is a beauty that can't be walked away from. The human heart was made for it.
So take your politics. Take your picket signs, your agenda, your liberal media bias. Take your power. You can have it all. Give me Jesus. Give me love.
