Ever notice how things come in trends? There was a time when everyone, apparently, liked bell bottoms. Then, within a few years, those same people liked tight and acid-washed jeans, Then they liked wide legged jeans in dark denim.
But do you ever wonder why we like these things? Or if we really like them at all? I think it all starts deeper than this, and farther back than our teenage years.
I recall being in 7th grade when capri pants came back into style. I'd heard of them, because my mom used to tell me about wearing them when she was young. I didn't care for them, really. But as the trend wore on, and I saw magazine photos depicting them as the uniform of anyone important, my resolve wore down. I couldn't necessarily put words to what happened, but I eventually began to buy and wear these stylist pants. What happened?
I was looking to be seen and liked, because I sometimes felt like I faded into the background when I was with certain people. I used to have dreams as a kid in which I would try to cry out for help, and either I had no voice, or no one could hear me. So by 7th grade, I was vulnerable to the voices that chanted, "I can give you a way to be heard..."
So in my vulnerable state, I allowed outside voices to tell me what to prioritize in my life. If you constantly see people regarding one set of characteristics as important, and constantly disregarding others as unimportant, it's not long before you start choosing things not because of what you really like, but because of your desire to be thought relevant. And that, my friend, is the beginning of a downward spiral. If someone can get you to choose what they want you to choose and to think it's you choosing, they can begin getting you to disregard what matters.
Today it's pedal pushers, tomorrow it's your choice in friends. Notice in a lot of media how people of certain walks of life are type-cast? You have the typical athletic woman who is usually a little masculine, the hipster, the typical non-academic teenager who loves fashion (aka ditz, because those who like aesthetics are assumed to be superficial), the typical person of specific race, etc. So we take intricately created human beings and their characteristics, and we jam them into boxes. We're artsy, so we are supposed to dress a certain way and live in a certain place. Or, we're academic and artistic and funny, but something doesn't seem to fit. So we cut off the silly parts of our sense of humor and become totally cerebral, not realizing that our humor now excludes some people and comes across as sharp and arrogant.
Today it's personal characteristics, but tomorrow it's outlook on life and the way we treat others. I was watching Gilmore Girls yesterday, and I was reminded of why I stopped watching it. Rory says to Lane, her friend whose mom is a legalistic yet devout Christian, "When are you going to let your mom know you listen to rock music? You are, after all, an American teenager." I guess being American and teen-aged necessitates sharing mindsets with everyone else. If you don't, you're marginal.
So how do we find the truth in all this? The truth is that when you were born, you liked what you liked. I have never in all my time caring for babies heard an infant be swayed by media or peers to like or dislike his strained squash or to go to bed at a certain time. Babies do what they do, and no one will tell them otherwise. Or they'll scream. :)
Funny, but the point is that you were made with an intact set of likes and dislikes. You don't need a Top 40 list to tell you what music is good; you have a conscience and an ear of your own. Two, actually. Ears, that is. And you don't need movie reviews or Academy Awards shows to tell you what movies are good. You have your own eyes, and what one person thinks is good isn't, necessarily. And why choose a school based on arbitrary ranking? Pick a place based on what you want to do and where you feel you need to be, not because of what others think of it.
So why does having your own taste matter? Because you were made to be you in this world. There will never be another like you, and we need your point of view. Things like the mass murder of unborn children, the genocide of entire races (even the living genocide around us in which we look down on certain races as not as good), and the judging of people based on gender goes unfettered when we learn that popular is more important than true. When the voices of truth are silenced, the voices of depravity will reign. And they are.
Take a step back and self-examine. For me, I found how easily certain voices got into me, and I didn't even know they were there. Ask God to show you. He will, and He won't judge. But He wants you to be you just as much as you do, so He'll help you see the way to freedom. Then you can start speaking the life, love, and beauty the world longs to hear from you. JOY!
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