God and Amanda Palmer's Fans

I’ll have to admit, Amanda Palmer’s TED talk certainly caught my attention.  She is unique and has interesting insight on an industry that is chronically plagued with profit-focused tunnel vision.  The manner in which she introduced stories and relationships with others, particularly her fan base, was highly unusual.  In many ways, Amanda Palmer’s relationship with her fan base reflected a right relationship with God.  Throughout her “talk” I believe that two base themes were reflected regarding her relationship with fans that are applicable to a right relationship with God.  The first of these is intimacy.  From the onset of her presentation, Amanda Palmer made it clear that intimacy with others was important to herself as well as her fans.  This was expressed in touching stories regarding her time as a human statue, all the time she spends signing autographs and meeting with fans, random last minute performances in museums, even allowing fans to write all over her body.  Similarly to the way in which Amanda Palmer approaches every interaction with her fans in an intimate manner, a Christian is called to intimacy in relationship with God.  This intimacy is achieved by setting aside time to spend building a relationship with Him.  No different than Amanda Palmer’s fans, the desire of God is to be in relationship with all of us, we just have to make ourselves accessible to His love.  The latter theme reflected by Palmer’s message is that of dependency.  From leaping into a crowd to depending on the generosity of fans for meals and couches to surf, Amanda Palmer makes it clear that she is dependent on her fans for all of her support, and that there is nothing to be ashamed of regarding this relationship.  Christians are called to be totally and completely dependent on God for all things.  As a Christian, the greatest lesson I can take away from this TED talk is that until I’m willing to put myself in a situation that forces me to rely on the loving generosity of God, I will never be able to know how faithful He truly is.