if you were cool back then....

It seems every generation somehow leaves its mark on society, whether good or bad is your choice.  After attending The Race of Gentlemen last fall at Pismo Beach, it was way cool to see the pre-1935 cars and 1947 motorcycles race on the sand.  Racers dressed in period outfits really made the cars and bikes look like the time frame they were from.  And probably like my father’s generation would have remembered them.  For those 10 years older than me, it was flatheads and Chevy motors, raised rear ends and wide oval tires, hood pins and stripes that they remember well.  Dungarees with the bottoms rolled up, engineer boots and DA’s were a bit out of style by then, although flat tops, and long sideburns were for the really cool.  No one wore hats of any sorts, who would cover up their hair back then?  Guys who rode wore leather, not uncommon was WWII surplus jackets and gloves.  But when it came time for me to graduate, it was bell bottoms, really flared jeans, shirts with Hooker Headers, or Castrol Motor Oil, and black sneakers.  No one wore platform shoes who was cool, at least not yet, it was about the cars and motorcycles, we were just wearing what we had at the time.  Cool went way beyond clothes, and still does today.  Being fashionable was and still is so fashionable to the insecure set, but to the really cool, it was what you rode or drove.  I knew geeks who would dress cool, and cool guys who dressed like nerds, they may be out of place in school, but after school in the parking lot, it was a different story.  If you were cool back then, you didn’t need to tell anyone, your car said it all.  Motorcycles spoke louder, and still do today.  Now, how cool are you?

Yet when I go to cruise nights or car shows, I get tired of all men wearing ball caps, women in poodle skirts, and contemporary leather jackets, trying to match the period of their car.  No one would shave their head, no one would wear their cap backwards, in fact very few even wore them.  The seventies was not all about platform shoes and disco, the sixties not all about psychodelic music and lava lamps.  Yet to look at the memorobilia you might think otherwise.  Cool transcended itself no matter the culture or fashion, it encouraged  you to be yourself, and many cool guys and girls operated outside of the norm.  But maybe it was really the other way around....

So being yourself was as hard back then as it is now, and as I see so called vintage racing shirts with logos I don’t remember, crowds of men wearing caps announcing their cars, and women in torn designer jeans at $200 pair, the truth is that is not the truth, but falling in the fashion conscious crowd.  Trying to look the part, to be recognized and fit in, but falling short in their façade.  A Triumph shirt from Lucky jeans is not the way to be cool, a jacket with Harley on it doesn’t make you a biker, and stickers on your car announcing it, well stickers are cheap.  Maybe we cannot define cool, it goes beyond words, but like the judge who was asked to describe pornography answered, “I know it when I see it,” cool is cool and always will be.  The rest of you are trendy.  And just as readily identifiable.

From time to time in my life, it has been trendy to be a Christian.  Church folk who used to wear white shirts and black ties with suits, women in out of style dresses that cover everything, and their hair covered is not cool.  For awhile Christian t-shirts were the fad, as is Bible covers to protect the book you never read, stickers on cars warning of the car being empty when the rapture hits, and listening to all the top-10 on KWVE. They are trendy, and I wonder how deep the relationship with Jesus really goes, as the woman in her SUV on the phone cuts me off then flips me off, her “Jesus loves you,” sticker on the window.  I once had a woman customer continually tell me “praise God,” until I told her that her car needed work, and then the expletives came at me.  Not cool in any circumstances.  You see we may fool some by our outward appearance, but God knows the heart.  And sadly for those led astray, we can tell too.

Jesus tells us a time is coming when he will separate the sheep from the goats.  In Matthew 25 we hear the church bragging on its accomplishments, all visual with little love, and Jesus rejects them.  He knew their hearts, maybe we need to do a self examination as Paul exhorts us to do to see where we are in Jesus.  Are we in the word or is the word in us?  And finally come to a true definition of cool.  Cool is knowing Jesus.  If you were cool back then, trends change, Jesus never does.  Religion goes in and out of style, love never does.  It is perfection and doesn’t need to change, we do.  Yet many Christians choose to be identified by the stickers on their cars, where they go to church, or only listening to Christian music, all stations set to a Christian station on their radio.   But deep down, where the spirit dwells within us, who does your life portray?  Are you a period Christian or in it for life?  Maybe we cannot describe cool, but we can Jesus, and his love for us.  It is in our reactions more than our actions that the gospel goes forth.  Loud pipes may save lives, but they also annoy.  Is your walk with Christ loud pipes annoying others?  Do you show love, or are you still thinking religion instead of Jesus?  Jesus is cool, has been for over 2000 years.  Kings, kingdoms, car and motorcycle companies, and styles have come and gone.  Yet Jesus remains, the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Interesting how society is so in tune with the past, they fear looking ahead.  Cool Christians look ahead with faith, and live today with joy knowing what lies ahead.  So if you were cool back then in Christ, you will be cool in heaven with him forever. 

Nostalgia tells us how it was, Jesus tells us how it is.  All Harley riders want to look bad, all street racers want to look fast, and at car shows a young kid dressed as a hood from the fifties just ain’t making it.  Jesus tells us to be ourselves, in him. Maybe the hardest thing we will ever do.  Cool goes way beyond peer pressure, and what we ride or drive, what we wear, or who we hang out with.  American Graffiti asked “where were  you in ‘62”"?”  Jesus asks where will you be eternally?  You see there is cool, and there is way cool....clothes don’t make the man, Jesus makes the man and is the man.  Who makes you will tell us how really cool you are.  The love of Jesus, I may not be able to fully describe it, but I know it when I see it.  I hope to see it in you.  That would be really cool....

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

Isaiah 29:13

13 The Lord says:

“These people come near to me with their mouth
    and honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
    is based on merely human rules they have been taught.