Flickering Pixels – Group Blogging Project – Chapter 8
Chapter 5 covered by Jay Caruso as part of our Group Blogging Project discussing the book Flickering Pixels by Shane Hipps. If you need a quick overview to what Flickering Pixels is about, please go here.
It’s interesting when a person asks to be a part of something, just how much it can impact them personally. I signed on for this group blogging project and had a chapter of the book assigned to me. John had absolutely no idea just how much this chapter would parallel my own life.
In Chapter 8, ‘The Dimmer Switch’, Shane discusses what he sees as a “hazard” with regard to conversion from non-follower to Christ follower. In modern culture, it’s common for people to recount the exact moment in their lives when they became Christ followers and often the implication is that if you cannot remember that exact moment, then there is a good chance that you’re not saved. Shane reminds us that the gospel writers don’t seem to be so concerned with that exact moment and in fact, it would be hard to pinpoint that exact moment for any of the disciples.
He attributes this in large part to the medium of print. He writes,
The print saturated mind is enamored with classification, categories, and elaboration.
He says while that is often a good thing (he cites God telling Adam to name the animals in the Garden of Eden) he says the “fetish” for categories can lead to problems when applying it to people and faith. We get too caught up in looking to place people into these particular categories such as “saved” or “unsaved”, “believer” or “non-believer” based on certain circumstances when in reality it can be far more nuanced than that.
Shane draws a contrast by using the examples of Paul and Thomas. Thomas followed Christ for three years, but still had doubts when Jesus rose again and actually wanted proof. Jesus offered it to him. Paul’s conversion was more stark. In an instant he became a believer when only moments before his heart was set on persecuting other Christians. Shane says that the Bible gives us two understandings of conversion but culturally, one is emphasized at the expense of the other.
So What Does It All Mean?
As I wrote earlier, it is common for people to recount their exact moment as Paul did. It wasn’t long ago that I bought into the cultural viewpoint that this is what it was like. That’s how you knew you were saved. However, I had a problem. I couldn’t remember that exact moment. I knew the place and I knew the year and I remember talking to the Pastor about it, etc. But if somebody asked me to give that exact date, I couldn’t do it. As such, I started to doubt my own salvation as a result. In making a long story short, after talking with my Pastor and getting some counsel from him, I was certain that I truly was a believer.
For me, I didn’t have the ‘light switch’ conversion. Mine was more of the ‘dimmer switch.’
So what did you think of Chapter 8 and do you agree that as a culture we emphasize “light switch” of conversion over the “dimmer switch”?
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16 Responses to “Flickering Pixels – Group Blogging Project – Chapter 8”
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Ask 8BIT 
This was an interesting chapter. I remember the moment when I was saved very vividly. I just can't remember when it was. But it's been a long journey since. So It's probably the switch, but with some dimmer thrown in.
This book seems to be saying that we've neglected parts of ourselves because of new technology and media. The reactions that images give us are a good counterweight to the logic that print lends itself to. I think that in all tech and media that we should use both emotions and logic.
Often when a group is asked to go around and give their testimony, I want to go to the restroom when the person next to me is talking about a glorious salvation experience. I don't have a "testimony."
I was raised in a Christian home. Guess you could say I was born believing. Yes, there was the summer camp experience when I stepped forward, admitted I was a sinner, and "accepted" Jesus. I got saved. But, there is no dramatic Damascus Road experience for me.
My faith, on the other hand, has been a project in the works. It has changed, diminished, grown. I never quit believing, but I did go through a time when I had to wander around to make the belief my own. . . to my God my own.
Like Thomas, there are concepts I just can't get my head around. The Trinity, for example. I won't be able to understand this one until I see God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit face-to-face. So, I don't try; I accept it on faith. For some folks, that makes me a heretic.
So, let's see if someone were to try and fit me and my faith in a neat little category it would be "a saved, but heretical, Christian."
I guess I'm just a dimmer switch that fades in and out.
Good points Susan. I particularly identify with not being able to understand fully some concepts or things in the Bible and to me, that's perfectly ok. We're humans and we'll never be able to fully understand certain Godly things.
I'm sure Isaiah wondered what God was thinking when he told him to stroll around Israel for three years buck naked. He probably did not grasp the why in all of that.
Susan, I'm in the same situation as you. I grew up with 2 Christian parents who did not emphasize a point of decision, so I can't really point to a day of conversion. The line that stands out to me most in this chapter is: "No one has it all figured out all the time – both Christians and non-Christians are in need of ongoing conversion."
Though I've been a Christian from an early age, I can point to a time in college when I tried to have things both ways – live for God and the world – realized it couldn't be done, and recommitted my life to Christ – a second conversion, so to speak. Right now God is leading me through some things that are totally revolutionizing my ideas about what it means to follow Jesus. I would not be surprised if i look back on this time as a 3rd conversion. And perhaps there will be others in the future.
I understand what you mean by feeling awkward around testimony time. But I think there's too much importance placed on the salvation moment. I'm more interested to know what's happened in the month/year/decade since!
Accepting the trinity on faith certainly isn't heretical. I don't think there is another way to accept it!
Great post, Jay. Love your take on this chapter.
I can recall the day and the events when I answered an altar call at age 13. I recall several emotions around that day. Looking back, however, I can't really recall a change in my life resulting from that event. Maybe it is like when you flip the switch and you get a bright flash and *pop* when the bulb burns out.
I have a very hard time with testimony too. I've come to realize that I actually fit the dimmer switch profile with respect to faith/salvation/etc and it is hard to characterize that in "testimony time". As such, I feel like my witness is diminished and it is hard to use "my story". Basically, our culture is not interested in the back story or character development. It likes the dramatic Damascus Road moments, the exciting "darkness to light" of the light switch.
I mean this with respect to testimonies and just about anything else in people's lives. Any "reality TV" show will serve as an example. They don't deal with real life. They go straight for the drama….
Excellent work, Jay. And what a terrific chapter too.
I was just talking to a friend about this earlier in the week. I really have no idea when I was "saved" and for me it wasn't all that long ago! I know when I started calling myself a Christian. I know when I started "following Jesus".
But I also know that I had an SSE (Significant Spiritual Event) where I believe that God interacted with me physically and profoundly in a Paul-esque manner. But that didn't happen until after. It wasn't until I put down my arms, so to speak and turned towards God and started walking in his direction that I was really knocked off my horse.
peace|dewde
This is a hard one for me. Saying that conversion happens somewhere in a process is the same as saying that you get to heaven by some amount of good deeds over bad. I mean how far in the process does the light get bright enough to allow you in heaven? What measurement of brightness does the dimmer have to at when u die so that you get into heaven – come on.
True, Christianity is a journey, growing in your relationship with Christ is a process.
But as for when you get into heaven? When you confess with your mouth that's when.
I do agree that, when it comes to today's culture, that we need to concentrate on the relationship part – because things are just more fuzzy and less measurable.
The question of light-switch or dimmer is only relevant because of our linear motion through time. To perspective of chief importance, it's a non-issue.
C. S. Lewis, "The choice of ways is before you. Neither is closed. Any man may choose eternal death. Those who choose it will have it. But if ye are trying to leap on into eternity, if ye are trying to see the final state of all things as it will be (for so ye must speak) when there are no more possibilities left but only the Real, then ye ask what cannot be answered to mortal ears. Time is the very lens through which ye see—small and clear, as men see through the wrong end of a telescope—something that would otherwise be too big for ye to see at all. That thing is Freedom: the gift whereby ye most resemble your Maker and are yourselves parts of eternal reality. But ye can see it only through the lens of Time, in a little clear picture, through the inverted telescope. It is a picture of moments following one another and yourself in each moment making some choice that might have been otherwise. Neither the temporal succession nor the phantom of what ye might have chosen and didn't is itself Freedom. They are the lens."
"How long could ye bear to look (without Time's lens) on the greatness of your own soul and the eternal reality of her choice?"
peace|dewde
http://dewde.com
The question of light-switch or dimmer is only relevant because of our linear motion through time. To perspective of chief importance, it's a non-issue.
C. S. Lewis, "The choice of ways is before you. Neither is closed. Any man may choose eternal death. Those who choose it will have it. But if ye are trying to leap on into eternity, if ye are trying to see the final state of all things as it will be (for so ye must speak) when there are no more possibilities left but only the Real, then ye ask what cannot be answered to mortal ears. Time is the very lens through which ye see—small and clear, as men see through the wrong end of a telescope—something that would otherwise be too big for ye to see at all. That thing is Freedom: the gift whereby ye most resemble your Maker and are yourselves parts of eternal reality. But ye can see it only through the lens of Time, in a little clear picture, through the inverted telescope. It is a picture of moments following one another and yourself in each moment making some choice that might have been otherwise. Neither the temporal succession nor the phantom of what ye might have chosen and didn't is itself Freedom. They are the lens."
"How long could ye bear to look (without Time's lens) on the greatness of your own soul and the eternal reality of her choice?"
peace|dewde
http://dewde.com
The question of light-switch or dimmer is only relevant because of our perspective tainted by our linear motion through time. To the perspective of chief importance, it's a non-issue.
C. S. Lewis, "The choice of ways is before you. Neither is closed. Any man may choose eternal death. Those who choose it will have it. But if ye are trying to leap on into eternity, if ye are trying to see the final state of all things as it will be (for so ye must speak) when there are no more possibilities left but only the Real, then ye ask what cannot be answered to mortal ears. Time is the very lens through which ye see—small and clear, as men see through the wrong end of a telescope—something that would otherwise be too big for ye to see at all. That thing is Freedom: the gift whereby ye most resemble your Maker and are yourselves parts of eternal reality. But ye can see it only through the lens of Time, in a little clear picture, through the inverted telescope. It is a picture of moments following one another and yourself in each moment making some choice that might have been otherwise. Neither the temporal succession nor the phantom of what ye might have chosen and didn't is itself Freedom. They are the lens."
"How long could ye bear to look (without Time's lens) on the greatness of your own soul and the eternal reality of her choice?"
peace|dewde
<a href="http://dewde.com” target=”_blank”>http://dewde.com
It's been my experience through people that I know (especially men in my small-group) that it would seem those that weren't raised in the church were more likely to have a "light-switch" conversion whereas those of us with Christian-family backgrounds may have experienced more of a "dimmer-switch" conversion.
However, I can distinctly remember a few years ago when I had realized how far I had strayed from God. It was clearly a "light-switch" moment. (More light a lightning-switch moment, really.) More importantly, I believe it's important to keep all this discussion in context. Salvation is salvation, no matter what road an individual walked or how they surrendered their life to Christ. (In other words, those of us with dim-switches don't have any less a valuable a testimony than those without.)
That's an interesting perspective Aaron because I went through something similar. When we moved from New Jersey to Florida, my wife and I thought it would be easy for us to find a new church. It wasn't and after awhile we became complacent and then awhile after that Sunday mornings became a time of Meet The Press and sleeping in late. Nearly 7 years passed. I never stopped believing. However, when some new acquaintances (who are now dear friends) invited us to church (interestingly enough a church we had visited 7 years earlier that was meeting in a movie theater and now had their own facility) and I went, it was totally a light switch moment. It was like, "Man, look what I've been missing these last 7 years!"
So I am a bit behind in finishing this chapter. But something crystallized for me in it. I have been having a hard time with this book, but the longer I go on the more I agree. The problem is that I keep reacting strongly against his origin issues. So I agree that many people have a shorter attention span. I agree that images, video and print all communicate in different ways and there are different uses for each and using the wrong one often has unintended consequences. But I just don't completely buy into these differences as being primarily about media.
Instead what I think what I am feeling is that Hipps is talking primarily about culture and using the concept of media to describe it. I really appreciate that he has started talking about the weakness of print as well as images now. But I am not sure what would really be different about this book if he changed the term print with Modernism and images with Post-modernism.
I guess I keep needing to read further to get to the point where I can really "get" what he is talking about. But I think I am still unconvinced.
I'm with you, Adam. He's taking a mighty peculiar route around the mountain and I'm not convinced he'll get me to the top before he's through.
peace|dewde
http://dewde.com
Adam, I also keep having reactions to his premise of medium. Maybe not as strongly as what you are describing.
For me, I sometimes agree with him about the medium being the cause or motivation for some of the culture. And sometimes I think he's stretching it too much. In the end, I may have to chalk it up to human nature making it hard to see or acknowledge the things that do shape culture. When something that intends to shape or change us is blatantly obvious, it often fails in its efforts, or is at least strongly resisted. The things that are slower or more subtly are often more successful at changing/shaping…
Either way, I think most of the illustrations he has are good and make for some really great discussions.