Grey Balloons

The characters in the beginning of CLC's Godspell are people you'd see any day at the train station. A sales executive with a briefcase in hand. A sports jock with her iPod cord dangling from her ear. A homeless guy begging for spare change. One by one they hurl out their philosophies of life into the universe, using the words of Socrates, Galileo, da Vinci, and Sartre. They are all in the same train car, but they live worlds apart. They are completely and utterly alone.

One of the images is especially poignant. A harried mom is dragging her kid across the stage, talking on her cell phone, when a balloon salesman approaches her. The kid begins begging for a balloon, until the exasperated mother shells out the money for the trinket and yanks the kid out of the station. What makes it so interesting is that the balloons are grey. As a matter of fact, almost everything on the stage is grey. All the clothing is grey. All the accessories are grey. But what really gets the point across is that even the balloons are grey. The whole picture carries a feeling of despair, of hopelessness. In what kind of world are balloons grey?

When the director conceived this interpretation of the prologue, she focused on the balloons. In the process of explaining the concept to the actors, she made a comment that I will never forget: "Life without God is like a grey balloon." That's the point she was trying to make in the whole prologue. These are people without God. They live and interact with people, but they are alone. Their lives are falling apart. They are without hope, without real purpose. That is, until Jesus comes along with good news. Suddenly the whole stage fills with color as the handyman, the student, the runaway are suddenly dressed in the brightest shades of red, blue, green, and yellow. Life suddenly has meaning, and nothing is the same after that.

"Life without God is like a grey balloon." What does that mean exactly? Well, what is a balloon? A balloon is a sign of festivity. They appear at birthdays, at dances, anywhere where people are having fun. Kids love balloons, amazed at how they float in the air, and they love the bright colors and goofy designs that often appear on them. Balloons are fun. And yet what do you do with a grey balloon? All of a sudden the festivities aren't so festive anymore. If all your balloons are grey, where is the color? Even something as happy as a balloon isn't happy anymore when it becomes grey. It is the ultimate sign of hopelessness.

That's what life without God is like. Even the happy things lose their joy. Life is hopeless, purposeless, meaningless. We seek after things to give us pleasure, but they don't fulfill. They feel worthless and empty. We run around, grabbing onto this balloon and that one, hoping that it will be something other than grey. But it isn't. They never are.

Then this guy comes around. He tells us that he has a place where life is full of purpose. He has color and laughter and festivity. Most importantly, he even has a red balloon that's just for you. "This balloon used to be grey," he says, smiling, "but I found a way to make it red. Welcome to true joy." Then you see his hands, which are marred by these two enormous scars, and you realize where the red came from. You look at him, shocked. But he smiles, and places the balloon in your hand. "It's okay," he says, "I did it because I love you."

The hopelessness is gone. Life has a purpose again. You can experience true joy because of the sacrifice that this man made to give you a life with meaning...like a red balloon.

(Photo credits: Kate Price and Kristen Leigh)

Meditations on Romans I

For the last month or so I've been reading through Romans, and when I finished it was so good I started again. This time, to help me meditate more on the truth I'm reading, I thought that it would be a good thing to blog through selected portions, since I think best when I'm writing, and I write best when I'm typing, and I'm most likely to type when I blog (welcome to my life). So this is a part of my devotions, but I hope you can benefit from my thoughts.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17)

This verse is an important one to church history, for it is the one that changed Martin Luther's heart and helped reveal to him the idea of "salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone." I just want to briefly go through each phrase here with some thoughts.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel: Am I ashamed of the gospel? Being ashamed is when I avoid the gospel and don't live my life with it in view, thinking "that's for unbelievers, I don't need it anymore." We need it every day and every moment, so am I embracing it?

For it is the power of God for salvation: the gospel is so amazing in that it is able to save! What other message do you know that can save? Not the message that a book or movie is trying to teach you, not the politician's message to give the poor more money or to do something in Iraq. Only the gospel can save, because contained in the gospel is the truth that Christ died to save sinners, including me. He gave his life for me as an atoning sacrifice in my place so that I could live forever with God!

To everyone who believes, to the Jew first and then to the Gentile: the gospel can save anyone! Just think about that: it doesn't matter who you are or what you've done. You can be a goody two-shoes church kid, a serial murderer, or anyone in between. It doesn't matter, because Christ died for all! This means that we never have to give up hope on someone, because they could at any time have their hearts changed by the Holy Spirit, no matter how far away they may seem. On the flip side, everybody needs the gospel! It doesn't matter who you are or how good you act or how much money you give to charity, you still need the gospel for your salvation.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith": As my pastor Robin Boisvert said yesterday, "Faith and repentence are not the gospel, it is the hand we reach out to take hold of the gospel." And the most amazing thing is that, even as we're reaching out that hand, even that move is empowered by God! This is such a crucial truth that we often take for granted, but the only way we can be saved is not through anything we do, but through accepting what Christ has done for us. Through faith in what he has done for us, we can live forever with God.