Movements stir us. Whether we agree and area ready to wake up early to ‘walk’ for it, or if we disagree and want to boycott, movements bring energy.

What is your place in a movement? Are you on the cutting edge or somewhere at the end right before it goes extinct? I love to observe and study movements; the process is intriguing. A movement seems to begin with an idea, then the idea becomes a conversation, a conversation turns into a conspiracy, and the conspiracy gives birth to a movement. During the first phases of a movement the visionaries and collective followers are filled to the brink with passion. The movement does not stay in the state of newness and thrill, however. Soon enough the movement will catch the eye of a business-type and somehow become a trend and to its own demise, a brand.

Because I have a love of Architecture and Urban Planning, I am going to focus in the design direction and avoid movements such as the ‘beanie baby craze’, although equally as thrilling. It is the Futurist movement in the early 20th century, the Modern movement brought by Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, the Postmodern movement, the New Urbanism movement, and the Deconstructivism and Digital Design movement which bring an energy rich with thought provoking conversation. Yes, these movements are more architectural in nature but they were successful because they were much deeper than physical buildings.

Le Corbusier and Water Gropius during the Modern movement of the 1920’s and 30’s were thinking and rethinking space as we experience it and new building materials. A architect student who traveled to see the first public exhibition phrased his observation: “I had a glimpse of a world that was being reborn.” (Barry Katz) But like all radical movements, modernism has been victim of its own success and its antistyle became the most successful style of all time.

Moving past the Postmodern and New Urbanism movement bring us to the Deconstructiveism and Digital Design movement we are currently apart of. It’s interesting to read theory of current architects. Some have abandoned the past hope of ‘a simple, more honest’ life of the late 19th century. We are now experiencing a movement that picks apart the very concept of “movement.” Of science without truth, text without authors, and buildings without visible structural logic. These are thoughts also of our peers, an expression of an age that has lost faith in the idea that there is a key out there that will unlock the mysteries of the universe.

What are your thoughts on these current theories and how they impact the movement Jesus Christ began some two thousand years ago? Perhaps you have been bombarded with so much “Christianity”. Perhaps you see Christianity not as a movement but as a trend or brand that does not give purpose. Similar to the tragedy of the modern movement’s antistyle becoming the most successful style of all time, some of today’s “Christianity” has strayed from the original intent. Jesus Christ called individuals to a movement of radical love.
Mark 12.28-31
“One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

Similar to the design progression of rejecting structural logic and scientific truths, we live in a time where individuals are rejecting the Truths found in God’s Word. Perhaps because they are looking at us, as followers of the movement, and do not see truth in our lives. I don’t know about you, but I know I need love, radical love, and truth in my life. And it starts with my daily choice to love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. Revolutionary Love.

Deeper, deeper, more than I thought
And steeper, steeper, more times than not
This decline is a landslide plagued by rain
To slick the rocks, yet dull my pain
I forgot what water is, when shallow
When did my footsteps lead to the gallows?
To hang myself or hang my pride
My heart and mind will not decide
Could I throw them away and lean on You?
Reckless abandoned faith in the Truth?
My soul and truth have mingled, yet
The world, my heart will not forget
Oh, the vanity of taking the bait
Men clutching the wind until it’s too late
All the while to the anthem of “I’ll never care!”
Amidst profound Grace that makes all life unfair
For our deeds and our actions—the return we are due
Is eternal damnation and absence from You
Oh, unsearchable Glory and firey might
You humble the haughty and use all for right
Even I, who stumble to this valley’s bare floor
Where the hangman awaits, and beyond is no more
The air seems to spark—the deafening cold
Prods the darkness yet closer, to press me in its mold
And just as the noose has slid over my throat
Dissonant madness was my heart’s final note
I cry to You, “Father, forgive me, God please!”
And I’m where I belong; I’m back on my knees
The valley, the hangman, the gallows are gone
Just as my Father’s memory of my wrong
Oh, the vanity found out in vanity’s core
I am born to this world, but am of it no more

What is all this fragility?
This mindless vulnerability?
The race against it and the embarrassing need for it—
It becomes too much for thought.
Has mankind been set up for this abbreviation of happiness?
Is it measured from sorrow to sorrow with the brief glitch of joy interspersed only to define the sorrow more deeply?
Deprived of a gas tank of the red liquid beneath my decaying skin,
I would be nothing.
It is apparent that it is actually nothing that holds my skin to itself—knit tight enough to trap my beloved vitality beating in my veins.
So fragile—so sorrowful
For how can something so weak and defenseless find true security and joy in its own acts?—A change in the atmosphere could betray our decrepit husks to freeze or fry, and we would be unable to protest. Such looming fate could leave one antsy. The inevitability of death could leave others depressed.

Thank God for God.

Without Him, one could feel insecure.
But where do we have to fall, save into His Hands?