I came to an odd realization yesterday. I do not like pink!
And, no this does not have anything to do with breast cancer awareness of which I support wholeheartedly and with every fiber of my being! What I am talking about is the color pink itself!
Now I realize that tons of people like pink. There is a store in the mall that is simply called Pink!
Pink sells lady’s garments and apparel that are, shall we say…pink! But they sell garments that are not pink either! I saw a blue sweatshirt for sale the other day, bringing me to question as to why they call the store Pink in the first place.
You can also buy yourself a body wrap at Pink that isn’t pink. You can’t make this stuff up.
Bruce Springsteen apparently likes pink. He sang an entire song about a pink Cadillac that he loved dearly including: crushed velvet seats; riding in the back; oozing down the street; waving to the girls; peeling out of sight.
It’s a really catchy tune if you like this sort of thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4PeT6aeytU
But unlike Bruce, what awakened me to this revelation was stopping behind a bona fide, genuine official Mary Kay Pink Cadillac at a stoplight yesterday; and, a thought ran through my head! I do not like pink.
Come to think of it, pink isn’t really even a color. It’s not white. It’s not red. It’s sort of a lukewarm blend of the two.
Pink is either a washed out red or a dingy white!
Some smart people have done an awful lot of research on pink and have come to the conclusion that it works as a tranquilizer of sorts.
According to Dr., Alexander Schauss, director of the American Institute for Biosocial in Tacoma Washington, “Even if a person tries to be angry or aggressive in the presence of pink, he can’t. The heart muscles can’t race fast enough. It’s a tranquilizing color that saps your energy. Even the color-blind are tranquilized by pink rooms.”
Morton Walker, The Power of Color, (New York, Avery Publishing Group, 1991), pp. 50-52.
Yes, I know, once again we revisit this you can’t make this stuff up category. But, it kind of brings me to a serious point too, that in lots of ways we behave as pink Christians.
In lots of ways we are neither red nor white but sort of a washed-out combination of the two. In other words, we often behave incredibly indifferent when it comes to actually following the commands of Christ to love neighbor and spread the Word.
I frequently cite Christ’s words in the book of Revelation regarding the church in Laodicea. He saved his harshest criticisms for that church.
“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked (Revelation 3:15-17 NIV).”
These folks were affluent, cozy and comfortable. And, they didn’t want anything rocking their world.
All the while, in their apathy they were wretched! I suspect many of us are all fine and dandy with life until someone or some thing comes along and rocks our boats.
And, Jesus is Chief Boatrocker! He had the audacity to love the world and command us to do the same.
In his command for us to love the world, Jesus never said that we got to pick and choose. He even had the meddlesome intent that we love our enemies; and, there is no wiggle room.
Don’t feel bad if this gets under your skin. The town’s folks in Nazareth back in the day tried to throw Jesus off a cliff when he preached his very first sermon to the home crowd (Luke 4:14-30).
Christ had the nerve to tell the home church that God loved foreigners even if they didn’t! And…they tried to kill him!!!!
(I have known some ordinands who preached some really, really bad sermons but this incident takes the cake because no one tried to kill them!)
So, back to pink…we can’t be some washed out Christian and also have rich, full glorious lives! Why? It’s because having hate in our hearts negates wide-open, spacious, glorious living!
Jesus knows that unless we resolve the hate issue within, we cannot have abundance without.
Maybe the old rock ‘n roller Dave Mason had it right, “Aint no good guys! Aint no bad guys! There’s just you and me and we just disagree!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8_FOQ7-P30