In Love pt 3

I saw this a couple of days ago and instantly knew I would have to write about it. Please, study this picture.

Kill 'em all
Let God sort 'em out!
Only God will judge me.

Pardon me...WHAT?!?!?

I am not going to take the time or energy to address the theological inconsistencies with this, and I refuse to try and dive into the political squabble that it is trying to entertain. I actually have no interest in discussing what this person is saying nor am I angry at him or her for saying it. Rather, I am more intrigued by the liberty in which it was said. It got me thinking about the way that I, and other Christians, speak. Our self expressions are often just that, expressions of our very selves. We are often careless with out words, but that is not what I am referring to here. I am talking about when we say what we mean and we mean what we say. In this instance, "Kill 'em all." Even if it was intended to be humorous, it was still intended. How would you feel if you were 'em? The death threat would be bad enough, but then what about the symbol of the cross being used as justification for your murder? I'll admit up front that I am pulling no punches here, but please know that I am not nearly as passionate and enraged about the words on this car as I am about the things I see in myself.

I may never say, "Kill 'em all" but what do I say? What do you say?
"She is an idiot." "I hate people who..." "I want to punch him" "I am so stupid" "People like that make me want to..."
There are plenty of other things I could list, but I hope you can see that I am talking about our emotionally-charged self expressions. Please take caution when exercising your freedom of speech. I would submit to you that as Christians, even as American Christians, ESPECIALLY as American Christians, we really do not have the freedom of speech. When we entered into covenant with God through Christ, we gave up our rights to do whatever we want to do. As I have written in my love blogs before, the way we love others is the very proof of our salvation. When it comes to loving others, it is encouraging to know that as we do so we are doing it unto God. However, that rule applies when we are firing off our verbal bullets. The way we speak to and about others shows our heart towards God. James puts it this way:
"The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!"
How can you kill 'em all, call 'em idiots, punch 'em, and despise 'em, when God made 'em? I am really serious about renovating the way I speak, even in my frustration. The Bible tells me that the things I say are actually samples of my heart. If I can verbally execute someone in a moment of anger, what must my heart look like? I urge you to look at the little (your name)-isms that pepper your vocabulary. It would be a very sad thing for your love, the evidence and completion of our relationship with God, to be compromised by the way you speak. Choose your words wisely and pass them through the filter of love.
...and if you don't have anything nice to say, don't plaster it on your car at all.

Bird Brain

Yesterday I watched the Met's production of Puccini's La Rondine. The plot was basically about a woman, Magda, who had everything except true love. She meets a man who seems to fill her every dream and leaves everything she has to live this alternate life she has always desired. La Rondine, the swallow, flies from the safety and comfort of her nest to find something else. To make a beautiful and long story short, she ends up empty and discontent with this new life and decides to go back to what she had. Obvioulsy there was much more fanfare than that...it's opera:)

However, it got me thinking about being truly content. Are you truly content with your life? Or is the grass greener on the other side for you? A couple days ago I was sitting on my dock with Amanda, my lovely gf, and for once instead of gazing at the sunset on the lake, we were looking back towards the house. Upon looking at our lawn she said, "I never realized the grass was so green." Now you need to know that our lawn is nice, but it is no landscaping marvel. Like most Florida lawns you can find plenty of scorched brown among the green. However, from the distance we were at, all you could really see was the overall color: green.

Sometimes we are discontent with where we are because the brown is so evident to us. We gaze elsewhere and see how much greater it is "over there." Not only is this a sad waste of time and energy, but also a dangerous distraction. Like Magda, many of us may dream of leaving our humble nest and flying to something, someone, some place, that seems more fulfilling. Yet, when we get there we realize it is not all we thought it was. Instead of this flighty behavior, we must learn to be content where we are and seek the beauty of God instead of the beauty of a far off land. If we would stop hopping around staring at the brown blades and would use our wings to get a bird's eye view we might realize that the place where we live has an overall color: green.

Don't be a birdbrain. Love your life. After all, God fashioned it. True, there may be some seriously rough patches, but if you have patience and let Him have control, He can take care of those. Don't fly the coop...renovate it!