Frog Rock: On The Way to the Platte; Restoring Authenticity in the Christian Church

The rock formation lies just off the north side of Highway 24 between the small towns of Divide and Florissant. I often point it out to my fishing clients on the way to fly fish the Platte or South Park’s Spinney and Antero Reservoirs. I have a friend who is a bit superstitious and every time he travels past on his way to fish, actually talks to the rock asking how the fishing will be.

The “frog” sits right on top of a large boulder about 30 meters north of the road. It looks like a “frog” ready to jump and viewers can clearly see what looks like it’s legs, body,  head, and face. For 30 years, I have noticed frog rock every time I drive by on my way to fish, ski or whatever.

Then, this past season, I noticed something different. Some one had painted it green. Someone must have dragged a ladder down there or rigged up a climbing rope and climbed up the boulder and painted the frog.

Of course, I did not like the paint job. Yet, I know there are worse things a group could have done as in Utah when a group of scouts knocked down a delicate rock formation in a park. Or, some one could have painted it orange or something stupid like that.  But, I still do not like it. In fact, it kind of reminds me of our need in this culture to fancy things up. It is not enough that nature carved this rock formation that really does look like a frog.

We fancy up a lot of things in our society. Of course this is done to help sell products or services or make us look better than we really are. Look at anyone’s face book or business website. The list goes on and on.  

I think where this fancying things up really bothers me the most is in the Christian church. I do not speak of all churches or ministers but it does seem that more and more are resorting to making faith more fashionable. Among other things, I am referring to the flashy, “light and music shows” and the “spiritual drama” used by many ministers, and the smoothie/coffee machines screaming and being offered to members during the service. Even the “one man show” can also be the churches way of using a charismatic individual, a professional speaker, to fancy things up to entertain the masses and bring in more people. More people means good business.   

Can anyone ever imagine it ever being another way? Could you imagine if churches actually had its members, ordinary lay people, participate and be the “center” of a service ?  Let them be the main show. Could you imagine having the members with all their brokenness and messiness be the focal point?  Oh no, it would be too boring and not fancied up enough.  It would not be much of a “show” to actually allow lay folks to express their thoughts, needs, insights and concerns. That would be far too slow.  Churches have to keep the pace up; keep up the hype. Keep everything on schedule as planned; keep the beat going.  And, why?  Well, we must remember people are more inclined to pay for good entertainment, a good show all fancied up.

The phrase “fancy it up” caught my attention years ago when I was rereading the  novel, “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury. In this futuristic society all books are burned. The government controls everything. It is illegal to have books in possession or in your home. The state does not want anyone to, “get any ideas”. Don’t dare be an individual; oh no!  Only mass conformity.  And one way to help that process of conformity is to take literature away from the masses. Take away poetry, Shakespeare, the classics. Take away the scriptures. Take away individual thought. Block out the thoughts of God.  Only ‘big brother’ is watching you and that is all that matters.

But in the novel as in real life there are always a few rebels. Guy Montag, a fireman, is such a rebel and he wants to preserve books instead of burning them as he once did. He wants to help print books again illegally and he is willing to risk his life for it.  

Late in the novel when Guy Montag has nothing to lose tells his mentor, Faber, another rebel in the story, “I can get books”. Faber replies, “You’re running a great risk”. Guy counters, “That’s the good part of dying; when you’ve nothing to lose, you run any risk you want”.  Faber is excited at Guy’s metaphorical insight and laughs, saying, “There, you’ve said an interesting thing without having read it”. Guy is curious, “Are things like that in books”?  “But it came off the top of my mind!” Faber brilliantly responds, “All the better. You didn’t fancy it up for me or anyone, even yourself”.

I love this!  I love this insight of realizing it is usually better to not fancy things up. It is better to not fancy things up for those we interact with, nor even for one self. Once we start thinking in terms of making something fancy, everything changes, and perhaps the purity of our message.

I can try not to be this person who compulsively has to fancy things up. I can try to live authentically with those in my own community. I can try to be sincere and more transparent. I can try to be authentic. All the better.

I can also only hope the church would value its members for offering up insights like Guy Montag.  Such insights could be all the better if we too learned to not fancy things  up.  I hope the ordinary individuals of churches can learn to stand up and offer up their vital authentic “un-fancied” perspectives within their church communities because these too, are “All the better”.

And I wish whoever painted Frog Rock would have left it alone. All the better.