Funny People

I am fascinated by humanity. Deep down I think we all are. We are attractively irritating, wonderfully complex, and uniquely annoying. We tend to be masters at solving everyone’s problems but our own, and are able to spot hypocrisy in everyone but ourselves. We hate crowds but don’t like to be alone, we claim individualism yet we are usually worried about what everyone thinks, we are opinionated, and at times very confused. But the ultimate form of our human fascination is found in the mirror. From “selfies” to self-help, we are quite smitten with the image that we see.  In fact, if I am honest with you I would tell you that I have an unhealthy fascination with myself, most humans do. I tend to lose my temper when someone says something hurtful about me yet at the same time beat myself up for not being what I pretend I am. I am okay with hurting as long as I am doing it to myself. I am okay with bondage as long as I am my own prison guard. We can be a very funny people. Most of us know of no other way to live.

We often argue the meaning of “truth” in a way that often drives others away, but with our life we are still looking for a true alternative to our own fascination. We are a funny people, but deep down most of us aren’t very happy. We know we were made for something more than what we see it the mirror, yet most of my life is spent trying to improving the image. No wonder teen suicide is so high.

We are afraid of rejection, yet claim to not to care about what others say, we exude confidence yet anticipate failure, long for purpose yet hang on to hopelessness, and we yearn for love yet wonder if it really exists. We are deathly afraid to have our thoughts really laid on the line, after all we would hate to lose our friends over who we really are. I believe that we ride the hypocritical merry-go-round more than we care to admit. I know I do. My friends and I can sit around a table at a coffee shop and manage to solve the world’s problems, locate our enemies, and  justify our positions, yet our personal lives are a mess. I can handle anything, except my ultimate fascination….me.

But in the midst of our strange way of living lies a solution. Not a solution that Photoshops our mirrors, families, feelings, and waistlines, but a solution that pushes past the me that I made into the real human that I was created to be.

God is fascinated with humanity too. In fact, if He were honest with us He would say that He had an unhealthy relationship with us. He came to visit and saw that we were a funny people. Not in a comical way but in a confused and quite delusional way. He saw that we were looking for an alternative to ourselves. He watched us slam our fists into the mirror, destroy our worth with our mind, and He watched us get dizzy from humanity on our little hypocritical merry-go-rounds. He watched others trash His name, hiding behind titles like Church, Christianity, and Religion. He watched as we destroyed each other with racial, political, and ethical swords. He saw that, in spite our deeply held convictions, our lives are generally a mess.

So God made a choice, He decided to be our friend; because we really had none. He came, knocked on the door of our funny little lives, and we rejected Him. It really is no wonder, we simply treated God the way we treat ourselves. Rejection is often more common for us than acceptance. Sometimes it’s the only way I know how to live. So, God made another choice, He took the relationship to an unhealthy level. He let us kill Him.

God showed us how to love a funny people in a funny way. He realized we were murdering ourselves, He realized we had become His enemy, much like we had become our own enemy, so in order to save our funny little lives He took our place. He died a horrific death. God realized that we didn’t know how to love. Jesus said, “Love others the way you love yourself.” Difficult commandment when it’s given to someone who hates themselves.

God showed us how to love, not the kind funny kind of love that we humans know, where we simply accept everything about everyone, but the kind of love that dies for His enemies, the kind of love that rescues a funny people, not from being funny, but from self-destruction. A love that releases us from sins we can beat on our own, a love that fills the heart and disinfects the mirror. He died so that we can look past our ourselves and see others the way He does…a funny people who He loves.

When my world view beings to mirror God’s I find that I am not as grumpy, critical, or confused about life as I used to be. I see my neighbor through the lens of God and my natural reaction is compassion. This is how God lived when He was with us and how He gives us strength to live while we walk with Him. Maybe God is the only One that can teach us how to live? God knows we are a little different, a little weird, and a little human, but He made us that way. When I try to transform who I am, to fit the culture that I am in, I commit spiritual suicide and never find peace in my own skin.

So through the cross, Jesus gave a funny people a funny way off the merry-go-round. Yet many people prefer to stay on. I guess you have to be sick of the ride before getting off is attractive. Until then, I watch a funny people ride a not-so-funny ride all the while they try to make sense of the blur. But today, I let my fascination with humanity be free to love and forgive the way God has done the same for me; now I can truly say that I love funny people.