“I’m still not caught up. I rent movies from the ’90s. I finally saw Clueless a few years ago, and it became my favorite.”         ~ Katie Perry (From USA Today)

Clueless came to the theaters as I hit high school. It was all about a ridiculously rich Beverly Hills teenager, Cher, whose mom had died during a routine liposuction—which I was stunned to learn happens… crazy what we will do to our bodies—But the movie followed Cher as she dealt with day to day problems as only the ridiculously rich are able; making herself the center and every setback became a tragedy! Hence, she was the movie’s title.

I have not watched this movie in ages. It was one of Audrey’s favorites (my sister), so I saw it often on VHS. And when I read the Katie Perry quote it brought back memories of the old movie…

RANDOM: The liposuction quote was the first thing I remembered about the movie. What does that say about me? … I also want to spell quote “ou” rather than “uo”, and the old saying “o” before “u” except after “q” came into my mind. Of course I have mixed up the old saying, it is about completely different letters, which I can not remember. I am sure this says something about me or at least my education! … With this tangent you have to wonder if it is me, rather than Cher, who is the movie’s namesake.

Back to the Katie Perry quote. I will confess I am clueless about pop culture. I suppose I stopped keeping up not long after that movie. Really I was never up to date, except that Audrey kept me informed. Of course now Ivy and Phoebe just teach me about Word Girl and the power of saliva to dissolve things…  All to say, I have little knowledge of Katie Perry, except that she is popular and was once a Christian artist. Then I read about her upbringing. She was not allowed to watch movies or television or listen to music… (And you complain about your parents!)

It is funny how Christians are clueless. We know that God hates sin, so we become afraid of the world’s evil tainting us. Tainting our children. We become overprotective. BUT, we have mixed up the old truth. God does hate sin, but He does not run away from sin. From the beginning God has come to us. We have no reason to fear that sin will taint Christ. Sure our evil has tainted creation, but it has never tainted God. And when God arrived into our world sin did not perform liposuction and pull out His majesty. Instead He soaked up the sins of the world with His life. Darkness thought He would be overcome. That sin would kill Him, but all the evil poured into the cross was no match for grace. And He arose. Because sin does not taint God. Instead His goodness taints sin. In Him the sinful may be redeemed.

There is wisdom in being wary and being protective. But at the same time, when we become overprotective, we miss the whole purpose of God. Rather than relying on God’s grace for salvation, we take the burden of keeping ourselves pure. Parents, we even try to hold our children’s burden. But with our protective actions we join the sinful, who seek their own salvation. And in the end our worst fears will be realized… but in grace, we have no fear, because God has come and will come again.

“Wasn’t my mom a total Betty? She died when I was young. A freak accident during a routine liposuction.” ~ Cher, Clueless