Caught in the Mosh
I am a metal head from way back; I love the beat, the rhythm and the intenseness of metal music. Even though I do not listen to the stuff I used to listen to when I was in high school, I found a new breed of metal, the kind that praises God, the kind that allows me to get metal in my diet without the negative imagery and evil. I love metal music, and I love the culture of the metal head. I remember going to dances in high school, and for any metal head out there who knows the terminology, I remember going and 'head banging' my heart out. Then the next morning my neck would be so sore that I could not lift up my head, but the next weekend I would be out their again doing it all over again.
Another familiar term in the metal word is moshing. It is where a group of people get into a crowd and slam dance with each other, sometimes getting very rough and sometimes getting very hurt. The terminology of getting caught in the mosh came to be. Once you were caught in the mosh, it was hard to get out. Sometimes those unsuspecting individuals that were on the outside of the mosh pit would also get caught and pulled into the frenzy of people slamming, elbowing and kicking each other to the beat of the music. The mosh, most times, ended up being a huge group of people violently trying to hurt each other, mostly because the music would drive them to do so. However, when you were caught in the mosh, the intensity and heart pounding exhilaration you received from the whole situation did not allow you to realize that you were getting hurt, so you kept going because of the adrenaline and noise. It was not until the next morning, that most people woke up to bruises and broken bones. How on earth does anyone think the mosh pit is fun? Well, honestly, when I was young and going to the dances and concerts I had a blast. I could keep up, but now that I have a family and am older—the mosh pit is not for me.
Moshing with the Church
I know, any metal head that throws up the metal horns is going to laugh at this one, however, hear me out, the idea is the same is it not? What happens in most of the churches with many personalities facing each other? You have the council, the leader of the church, sitting around talking about finances and functions. You have those same people sometimes getting angry—tensions rise, anger boils, pride and egos get blown up and low and behold they start attacking each other. Sometimes the attack is out in the open; most times the attacks come in forms of back stabbing and manipulation, but none-the-less the mosh is on, and it keeps going and going until someone gets hurt. Then, sadly enough, the people of the congregation, who do not want to get involved get sucked in and the backlash of incidents ends up hurting everyone. No one is safe from the mosh when the devil is the musician driving the motivation on. No one is safe when you allow the enemy free reign over your lives.
It is true, some people do not get involved in the mosh pit of the church, but it is those people who are on the outskirts of the “concert” who just go there for the music. They stay clear of the violence and keep to themselves. There are two ways to look at the situation, the first is, those people who stay out of the inner affairs of the church are safe. Some of those people are the wicked and perverse people who do not care what is going on—the others are the good people who are “lukewarm” and do not care what is going on. Either way, they are staying out of the mosh pit, either way they are trying to stay safe.
Fortunately for us, there are those who decide to enter the mosh pit that are there to not fight but make peace. We need those people who will break up the fight and bring unity to the church. The problem is, it is hard to stay out of the mosh once you are in it. Most times everyone gets sucked into the fray, and then find themselves trapped within, fighting to get out. Usually those people end up getting angry and frustrated with the church, the leaders of the church and find themselves asking God, Why am I staying in this mess?
It is a scary situation to be in. As I said, the devil is the heart of the church’s mosh pit. Christ came to bring unity and peace, but the devil comes in and brings out the worst in everyone. Everyone usually gets involved or ends up getting hurt.
What exactly is the solution? Faith—Prayer—Love—Unity. Three simple, but yet extremely near impossible tasks for any church. The prayer usually comes with services, but most times is found to be lacking. Love is there, but usually at set conditions and at a price. Without the first two items, unity and faith are usually impossible to grasp. Many get caught in the mosh pit of the church and cannot with stand against the brutality of the lies, finger pointing and gossip. Many cannot stand against the brutality of egos, greed and pure wickedness of the church itself.
The solution is clear and simple, yet the solution is hard and terrible risky. The solution is standing up for what you believe—and others will follow. Stand up and fight with faith, prayer, love and unity; however, most times those four tasks come with threats and opposition. If you are the pastor or priest in a community, and you stand up against the council—you lose your job. If you stand up against the leaders of your church—you lose your job. So most times the leaders of the church just fall back into the corner of the church and stand and watch the mosh pit keeping silent. But I tell you in truth, standing off to the side; you are next to the stage where the devil is playing his music. We, as leaders, are just as much to blame as the devil himself. We need to stand up and fight, even if it means our jobs. I know, I know, we need to be able to provide for our families and make a living. I have to keep out of the mosh pit. I have to keep myself out of the cross hairs of the hierarchy and churches sights if I am going to make it. It is sad, that we feel that we have to throw away a part of our soul in order to make a living.
Standing and fighting for what you believe in is a challenging task, and really a task that only requires ultimate sacrifice. Yea, I know that little four letter word—only. It is really the biggest word in that sentence. But who is it we follow anyway?
Christ is in Control of the Mosh
The world is very similar to the church in every aspect. It runs on money, greed and politics. It runs on pride, self-centered people and self-preservation. I really do not need to get into how the world is a mosh pit. If you have read this far, you can replace all the words church above with world and really it’s all the same sadly enough. The mosh pit of the world was bad, from the first two entrances—Adam and Eve—until now that something had to be done. NO ONE was doing anything, and those few prophets who came and got involved in the mosh usually found themselves dead. Everyone God sent to warn His people, were ridiculed and punished. No one was safe, and very few had the courage and fortitude to do what was and IS right.
No one could bring the words or actions needed to bring and unbelieving world to its knees. The leaders of the faiths were corrupt and thrived off of money and pride—sounds familiar right?—so finally when the world had gotten bad enough, when the people had gotten to the point in their lives where another flood was in need—someone came and entered to mosh with the four prerequisites need—prayer—faith—unity—love. No one had ever come into the fray with such authority and control. No one had ever come into the mosh pit and kept control over the situation. As the mosh pit raged around Him, Christ brought his message of prayer—faith—unity –love. He taught this no matter what. He did not beat around the bush, He did not fear for position, money or even His life. He did what He intended to do—BRING HIS MESSAGE TO THE MOSH PIT!—at no matter the cost.
He knew from the beginning that it would cost Him His life and that it would eventually lead Him to the Cross. He knew going into the devil’s concert and entering the violence of the mosh pit with a message so contradictory to the world that it would lead Him to His death. Satan could and would not allow this. Satan had worked too hard since the fall of humanity to allow such rebellion to over throw his plans of ruin. Christ came and spread His message, without fear or regret. It was not until He knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane that the fear gripped Him and the reality of what was happening was setting in. He had known the path all along, but He did become man. He did willingly enter the mosh pit, and He did have a heart and desire to live. The only difference was—prayer—faith—unity—love was so pure and so powerful that He defeated Satan and brought the mosh pit to a standstill the day the sun was darkened and the earth quaked. He had brought His creation full circle. He had given them the opportunity to have life eternal. He had destroyed the only power Satan had over any of us—death! The war had been won—but now the battles were just beginning.
The Mosh Pit in the Now
Even though Christ set in motion the end of death and hell, Satan still has time. It was not very long after the resurrection that Satan climbed back on stage and began calling people into the mosh pit again. In truth, the mosh pit with continue to rage until Jesus returns again. None of us are safe and none of us are exempt from the brutality of the world. The closer we get to God and have Christ as the center of our lives the closer, in reality we get to the mosh pit. We cannot stand on the sidelines and hope that everything will be OK. We cannot stand by and watch our loved ones and the world be punished and abused. We cannot be a silent majority. We allow the world to blaspheme Christ and we say nothing. We allow all the sins of the world to happen and we stand back and say nothing. We see all the corruption of the churches and the world and yet we stand next to the stage and allow Satan to play away, while we watch everything we hold dear and true in our lives be pulverized by the mosh pit of the world.
We are called to stand up and fight! We are called to draw our swords and don our armor. We need to use our weapons of warfare and stand up against the enemy and everything he does against us. We need to keep vigilante in our prayers! We need to stand firm with our faith! We need to love everyone! And we need to push toward uniting the world with Christ! We need to hold ourselves accountable: FOR WHAT WE DO AND WHAT WE DO NOT DO!
Jesus came to set us free. What are we doing with that freedom? Christ came to give us salvation. What are we doing with that salvation? We need to find the balance of the world and tip the scales in our favor. We hold the truth! We hold know the way! Fight until you cannot fight anymore. The mosh pit will not last forever.
