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Monday Morning Scattershooting


Monday Morning Scattershooting while wondering why people think I'm being condescending. It’s just that I'm too busy thinking about far more important things they wouldn't understand.




    I have to admit I am getting a little tired of Facebook.  To be honest I never much cared for it.[1]  Now however the noise is getting a little overwhelming.  Too many opinions, too much information, too much bickering, too much meddling, too many busybodies.  For some reason, people can’t handle making comments.  I now avoid the comment section on any website. Not that there are not good point in some discussions, but to get to them you have to wade thru so much junk.  I still can’t believe how people don’t think about what they are saying in public forums.  Maybe it is the false mask we think we have online.  We will say things to a screen that we would never say to person.  As Oscar Wilde put it, “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”  The irony is that what we say online is even more permanent.  Our words will drift until the sounds pass away but what we post is etched in stone.  Yet we control no more. What did James tell us?
So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!  And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.  For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race.  But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.” James 3:5-8 
Next time we race to comment, don’t.  Before we add our two cents, think. What you say matters (Matthew 12:36). Don’t create ruin with your words.

    I heard a preacher say something this last weekend that made me think.  As he was talking about the need for churches to spread the Gospel he remarked how we all desire to be known as “friendly congregation” but that friendliness may make us unwilling to tell people uncomfortable truth.  We won’t tell somebody they are lost and won’t go to heaven because we might cause offense.  It got me thinking about the pendulum of politeness and directness.  I've seen both side of that swing.  Some who will hide the very nature of the church in order to “keep in good standing” and then those that thru their brutish ways will never win a convert.  I think the answer is in speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).  Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3:15,   “but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;”. We need to give the answers for our faith but in a respectful and courteous manner. To hide truth is never the answer. To live up to a negative stereotype isn't the way either.

    Finally, on a Monday morning, a mother went in to wake up her son.  "Wake up son. It's time to go to school!" "But mom, I don't want to go" he replied.  "Give me two reasons why" she told her son.  "Well, the kids hate me, and the teachers hate me too!" he grumbled.  "That's no reason, come now get ready" she scoffed.  In desperation he quipped, "Give me two reasons why I should go?"  She thought and responded, "Well for one you are 52 years old. And for another, you're the principal!



[1] Most people live lives of quiet desperation, but with Facebook it is no longer quiet
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