Why I'd Like A Little Mud In My Cupcakes

There's a metaphor I heard growing up about mud in cupcakes. It stated that adding even just a little mud is enough to ruin an entire batch of cupcakes. Likewise, a little unwholesome content can spoil an entire book/movie/song/work of art.

The mud in the cupcakes metaphor is a good one--it’s an image that sticks with you and it makes sense. A bad ingredient can throw off an entire recipe. And even if the mud was removed from the pan, would you really want to eat the cupcakes? 

But is that always the case?

Here’s another analogy--the sickest I've ever been in my life was after going on a huge germaphobe kick. I have never washed and sanitized so much in my life. And, as it turns out, your body is built to withstand some germs. In fact, you need to come in contact with some to build up antibodies. See where this is going?

The world is full of germs--mud--right now. It always has been, but we’ve decided to put the mud on a pedestal and label it as the ideal. We, as a society, love sexuality and violence. We can’t get enough of them. And so some of us are acting back. We’re sanitizing our lives and refusing to ingest the content the world throws at us. We're avoiding rated R movies. We're refusing to listen to certain songs on the radio. We're disconnecting our cable, choosing instead to watch reruns of the Dick Van Dyke show on Netflix (that one could just be me). We're turning back to a lighter era where glittering virtues were thrown into the public eye to be admired and valued, hoping to see them reflected back in the eyes of our youth as a promise of an even brighter future. But we're also doing things like sanitizing Mark Twain. And avoiding fine art depicting nude figures, like Michelangelo's David. And, like that poor baby thrown out with the bathwater, we’re throwing out the cupcakes with the mud. So where is the line between being in the world and of the world? Between familiarizing ourselves with the enemy to recognize him and familiarizing ourselves with him to become him? Maybe we should look at why there’s mud in the cupcakes before tossing it out altogether.

I'm not sure where the line is. Should aspiring directors cut all rated R movies from their viewing or does doing so deprive them from solid learning experiences? Aren't some movies classics for a reason? What about literature? Plenty of works that are touted as timeless classics have questionable content. Are we missing some robustly human learning moments by avoiding that content? Or is that content just dirt disguised as dessert?

Fortunately, we have an inner voice straight from God to help us discern between the treasures and the trash. And we can call upon Him anytime we choose.

Now here’s where the metaphor falls to pieces, because there’s never a good reason to put mud in your cupcakes. Instead, I’ll speak plainly--we, as Christians, are missing part of the point of Christ’s mission--Christ did not close his eyes when he met the prostitute, nor did He chose to stay away from the slums for fear of seeing evil. He lived in the world and He recognized it all. He sullied His clothes as He knelt to hear the story of the thief. He dirtied His palms holding the hand of a wretch. But, at the end of the day, the clothes were washed and His hands were cleaned. He understood the evil in the world and faced it to better understand it. His reason was simple--how could He save a word He didn't know? How can we overcome a world we don’t know? How are we to understand the gritty truths of this world--the dirty, awful facts that good people can experience bad things, that evil can dwell in the good places, and that rainbows can be found in oil spills--without experiencing them? We are to experience darkness so we may more fully appreciate light. And just as not all that glitters is gold, not all that looks wicked really is. 

So I say, yes, I'd like a little mud in my cupcakes, please. Because I am fighting every day to overcome this world that is trying to overcome me. So I'll try to not turn a blind eye on all evil. After all, if no one ever strikes a match to peer into the darkness, something lost in the dark will never be found. And a cupcake that was meant to be enjoyed will go stale.