I have professed my love of the films of Kevin Smith for years. And while I am not skilled enough to critique his skills as a director, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he is a fantastic writer. In one of his more controversial films (for really no reason whatsoever), Smith wrote the following dialogue for Rufus the 13th Apostle who was purposefully left out of the Bible because he was black. Speaking of Jesus, Rufus said:
“He likes to listen to people talk. Christ loved to sit around the fire and listen to me and the other guys. You know whenever we were going on about unimportant shit he always had a smile on his face.”
There is an expression that God is in the details. The true definition of person does not come in the big, sweeping questions. Christian? Jew? Muslim? Republican? Democrat? Pro-gun? Anti-Abortion? Giants fan? Cowboys fan? (Although for the record, that last one… yeah, just stone those people in the streets.) People are never impressed with the broad strokes of an artist. Broad strokes do not a painting make. It is the small strokes, the subtle blends, and the minutiae of the details that make a piece of art or music truly inspiring.
Now, stick with me. It seems like over the last several months, a few people have been removed from my life because of job changes. And it is strange. My former boss and I at our 9-to-5 used to share stories as we were setting up the department of the day. These conversations could be about World of Warcraft, fantasy football, movies, cool facts discovered on TV shows (we both dig the History Channel and Discovery)… All of the conversations were of things that, in the grand scheme of things, had no relevant bearing in my life. I don’t want to call the topics “stupid” but more “inane” than anything else.
I have friends from high school – good friends – friends that I would be happy to call brother. Some of these guys I have not seen in years. We maintain contact via email and Facebook but it does not have the same level of closeness. So you would think that if we got back together, we would have just loads of stuff to talk about. And yet… have you ever experienced that? You should just be spouting Wikipedia levels of information at this person. It has been three years! But you find yourself with nothing to talk about.
Then I have my friend Luke who I see all the time at work. To this day, we have NEVER run out of things to talk about. Granted most of those conversations revolve around boobs, video games, intercourse of various fashions (filmed and live), work related BS, movies, and such. By all accounts, it is all inconsequential… Yet I crave those conversations.
So if we are made in His image, and if God is in the details, then one could surmise that these inconsequential details – this unimportant stuff – are who we truly are. It is these little exchanges, this small, meaningless crap that actually makes your life worth living. So to this argument, I would add a quote from one of history’s greatest minds.
Now, stick with me. It seems like over the last several months, a few people have been removed from my life because of job changes. And it is strange. My former boss and I at our 9-to-5 used to share stories as we were setting up the department of the day. These conversations could be about World of Warcraft, fantasy football, movies, cool facts discovered on TV shows (we both dig the History Channel and Discovery)… All of the conversations were of things that, in the grand scheme of things, had no relevant bearing in my life. I don’t want to call the topics “stupid” but more “inane” than anything else.
I have friends from high school – good friends – friends that I would be happy to call brother. Some of these guys I have not seen in years. We maintain contact via email and Facebook but it does not have the same level of closeness. So you would think that if we got back together, we would have just loads of stuff to talk about. And yet… have you ever experienced that? You should just be spouting Wikipedia levels of information at this person. It has been three years! But you find yourself with nothing to talk about.
Then I have my friend Luke who I see all the time at work. To this day, we have NEVER run out of things to talk about. Granted most of those conversations revolve around boobs, video games, intercourse of various fashions (filmed and live), work related BS, movies, and such. By all accounts, it is all inconsequential… Yet I crave those conversations.
So if we are made in His image, and if God is in the details, then one could surmise that these inconsequential details – this unimportant stuff – are who we truly are. It is these little exchanges, this small, meaningless crap that actually makes your life worth living. So to this argument, I would add a quote from one of history’s greatest minds.
Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted. --Albert Einstein
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