Have you ever noticed when you buy a new car, or a new to you car, that everyone, everywhere you go has the same color car? Well, our last two new cars have been white and guess what, everyone, everywhere we go has a white car. Not an easy find in a parking lot! This really did intrigue me (I know, sad), so I did a little research.
Come to find out, 80% of new cars are painted in four neutral colors — black, white, gray and silver (aren’t they the same?), now. In the 70s & 80s, you guessed it, no kidding, the hot colors were harvest gold, avocado green, and burnt orange (my Datsun B210) and you thought it was just appliances. In the 90s it was bright colors, teals and purples. And in the 2020s it is grayscale, black, white, gray, and silver. You now know more than you ever wanted to know about car paint colors. But here’s why it came up.
I was driving home from church the other day, and there’s one spot that has a slew of cars parked there on a regular basis, this day four in front of one house. And guess what color they were?? Gray! Then I passed a gray truck. Then another gray car on Burke Street. Then another in the square. It seemed, just like when we got our white cars, I now couldn’t get away from gray cars. They were everywhere. And I said to myself, gray must be the new white. And that phrase immediately quickened my mind. Gray is the new white. The more I thought about it, the more I realized just how true that statement was. In the world we live in gray really is the new white and we Christians have made it that way (sorry, not sorry). How so?
You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!
Look how far you have fallen from your first love!
Revelation 2:4-5
The Christians in the Church of Ephesus were a fading bunch. Yes, Jesus pointed out some very good things they were doing, but He also pointed out that their love for Him was not as white, not as bright, not as pure as it had been initially and that they were losing sight of the seriousness of their dark, black, sin. Their love for Him was mixing with their worldly view on sin casting a gray hue.
Jesus said something similar to the Church at Laodicea about their color mix.
I know all the things you do and you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other!
But, since you are like lukewarm water, I will spit you out of my mouth!
Revelation 3:15-16
Jesus pointed out that the Laodicean Church was neither white nor black. They were gray. And He points out the cost of following Him and being grayscale.
Hmmm…these teachings of Jesus certainly bear some very serious consideration. In a world that pushes the gray of compromise, accommodation, tolerance, if we are not watchful, we are at risk of Jesus saying these exact same things to us… Look how far you have fallen, look how lukewarm you have become. Look how you have mixed the divine (absolute truth) with the world (absolute false) to make something different, gray. This mix is a walk onto the pond of thin ice. The further we get from shore, the higher the risk, and the thinner the ice, and the inevitable fall.
The only way to avoid the fall, the spit out of the mouth, is to avoid the pond, the murky water. In order to do that, we have to be hyper vigilant, the eyes of our hearts wide open. The “world” (black) is so cunning and intrusive and the more we live it, the more darkness we see. Before we know it we have heard something that we can’t unhear, we have seen something we can’t unsee, we have bought into lies that make it hard to find the truth. The things we see on TV, the internet, at work, at school, in the grocery store, in a conversation with friends (even Christian friends) can subtly bend our hearts and throw shades of gray.
Our best defense from blending is a good offense. The Way. The Truth. The Life. The Word of God. Read it. Know it. It tells us what to watch out for and how to protect ourselves from the dark and bring Jesus into the light. With Jesus there is no gray area.