So, are you cool, or are you a loser? 

Ok, I understand that I am using vocabulary from the sixties, but in our modern culture, are you successful (cool) or are you marked to be less than successful (not cool)? Why are some people marked for success, from a young age? And then there is the rest of us.

Our modern cultural values are expressed in media, including movies. Here is someone who thinks we have to start by being uncool before we become “actually cool.”

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Being “cool” is a strong driver, in modern culture. One common expression, now, is “Uncool is the new cool.” If you put those words into a search engine, you might be surprised by all the Internet comments, and even a few popular songs.

So, do you feel pressured to be successful, according to the standards of popular culture? Does your ego feel the drive to win approval? Can you control your ego long enough to do something that is not popular?

That is a huge battle, for some people.

Do you feel like someone who drives our culture, or someone who is being dragged behind? If you are still young, I have news for you; Wait until you turn forty, or maybe fifty. You may know that there is a fashion retail company named “Forever Twenty One.”

I am not criticizing retail marketers and strategists, but we should know that clever marketing experts know how important it is to feel like a young and fashionable winner, in modern culture. 

We should see their picture of us, a picture of what sells. That is a good lesson for us all.

Where are you from? What if I laughed and said ‘Can any good thing come out of ***?’ and *** was the name of your home? ‘Can any good thing come out of the place that you are from? Ha, Ha, snicker.’

I am not making this up. I am writing as a Christian, and that is written in the Bible. Really. In one story, two men talked about someone new to them, a man named ‘Jesus.’

We have these words: 

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  (John 1: 45 and 46)

“Ha ha, snicker.” is not included in the story, but we can all hear those sounds. Did you know that Jesus was really uncool in his culture? He was a carpenter from a small hick, northern town, “Nazareth” and for some people, he was not worthy to teach them.

He was trying to change the world, but He was not cool enough to speak to educated people, in His culture.

In another Bible story, we learn about another world changer, a man named Moses. 

Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.(Acts 7: 21 and 22)

Moses was the adopted grandson of the coolest person alive. That ancient culture still fascinates us, and did you know that the last monarch of Egypt was Cleopatra? She lived just over two thousand years ago and she saw the ancient Egyptian Sphinx, that giant statue of a lion, with a human head.

For Cleopatra, that statue was already over two thousand years old. That ancient culture was ancient, and amazing, for Cleopatra.

Also, a few hundred years ago, a cathedral in England was built with a tall tower, and that was the tallest man-made structure in the world. Before that cathedral, there was one taller structure in the world, and it is still with us.

It was thousands of years old, when the cathedral was built, and nothing taller was ever built. That object is the great pyramid of Egypt.

Did you know that the young man named Moses was probably the coolest, most sophisticated man in the world? He was like a movie star and a great liberator. He was, until he became a wanted criminal and escaped into the desert.

There Moses was adopted by a family of sheep herders and married a woman in that family. The Egyptians were disgusted by livestock herders, and would not even eat in the same room as them.

Forty years later, God called Moses back to Egypt, to free his people and change the world. Imagine a disgusting ragged man, from the wrong side of the tracks, talking to Pharaoh, the King of Egypt. Moses probably smelled like sheep.

You probably know the story. Pharaoh was not easily persuaded, and he finally tried to kill all of the people of Israel, and Moses.

There are other stories like this, and it is easy to miss the point, in those old stories, that God did the greatest miracles through losers, people who were rejected by their popular culture.

There is a lesson here for all of us, and we can easily miss this point, in the old Bible stories. God changes the direction of world history with people who are rejects in their popular cultures. Losers are God’s winners.

Not many of you were wise from a human point of view, not many were powerful, and not many were born with high status. But God chose the foolish things of the world to put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are strong, and God chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things, and the things that are not, to do away with the things that are. (1 Corinthians 1: 26 and 28)

Did you know this? So, what is your great thing, from God?