True Grit

In September of last year, as the lease on our first place was about to expire, Jo and I began to consider a move.  The rent was high and increasing at the apartment complex we had shared our first year at, and as we began to look around and consider our options and stage of life - we started to think living downtown would be a fun experiment.  You can read more about our first-hand experience here.


After all, we didn't have any kids!  It was just us - and we could afford to live a risky, grittier life - right?  Famous last words!

Lately, I've been thinking more about the idea of "gritty" living.  Linked with a loss of control (read here for more on that), I'm meaning things we've all experienced - but 'a particular attraction to' weeds, dust, cracked pavement, tilting foundations, artificially faded and tinted photos, independent films like Once, guitars with 'play-holes' in them, simple bands like Sigur Rós, used furniture, clouds, rain, hand-me-down scarves, designer jeans meant to look 20 years old and bicycles that really are.


Though I've never observed it before, the season of Lent has lent (couldn't help that one) itself to a certain growing connection in my mind.  I've realized that the world around me, downtown specifically, was growing in it's decay.  A strong word, but I mean come on people - I'm from the suburbs!  I'm used to manicured lawns, cookie cutter houses, immediate fixes to cracked drywall, following the cookie cutter style around me, and obsession with the newest and latest.  Now instead of seeing this 'particular attraction to' gritty living as a cultural phenomenon or generational trend, I've begun to see it from a more distinct perspective.


Observing Lent helps us to remember our finiteness.  We give up something in order to be reminded of our place in the cosmos, and to become more reliant on Christ.  Just the way each of us sometimes fills the heart-need to worship with something foreign and ill-fitting besides God, so I see this grit 'attraction.'  Although humanity as a whole is bent on dominion and exploitation, it would seem there is also something deep in us that wants to be finite, limited and out of control.


This grit-love points us towards the limitations of our world, the curse it is under, and the redemption that has already begun in the hearts of Christ's followers.  See it that way, from the side of eventual complete redemption and rebirth, and you begin to appreciate the beauty of a decrepit and failing system that points in every way toward a God who will make all things new again.


Although Jo and I love the vibe of downtown, the dust of lead paint chips around our windowsill is still cause for alarm and will quite likely push us out of our current abode with a newborn child!  I'm not about to go plant weeds and would still love a new bike.  Though I'll still plan on doing my part to bring order to things, I'm choosing to embrace the grit of life, to proclaim the truth of decay, and to celebrate the ruin of our present reality.  For each ruin will only stand to shape our understanding of the victory that has already begun!


And yes, I listened to Sigur Rós and Hammock while writing this blog.