hearing the Gospel in the everyday

The Trend of Customization

DC Comics released a new logo today that reinforces the growing trend of personalization and customization. The logo can be tailored to suit each individual character. In an age where technology and the Internet increases the likelihood of depersonalization, I find that the pushback towards self-expression and customization declares our need to be human, to not be just one more cog in the wheel. We want to be significant. We want to be counted.

I’d suggest to you that significance comes from a matrix of three factors:
1. The need to be known. We want to be validated and confirmed as a unique character. I think this is the function of the image of God pushing its way to surface no matter how much we (or any other force) try to suffocate it.

2. The need to know. It’s not enough to be caught up in a narcissistic self-absorption because significance ultimately comes not in isolation, but in community. Therefore, we want to know as much as we want to be known.

3. The need to be useful. Although our post-industrial age has put way too high of a value on function, as part of our image-bearing nature, every one of us feels the need to contribute, to make something of the world, and to feel that our existence matters.

Put these three needs together, and you have a very powerful formula by which to measure the value of the Gospel and the kind of missional community it creates!

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If ever a myth had become fact, had been Incarnated, it would be just like this...the Word, flesh; God, man. I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else. - C.S. Lewis