Christians are some of the meanest people I know, myself included. Oh yes, if you’re honest you know we’re right up there with prom queens, Mayan ritual priests, soccer moms and toddlers. So, bygones. I’ll speak for myself and say I have always had the innate ability to use words the way a surgeon might use a scalpel or how an inmate might use a sock full of pennies in gen-pop when someone takes his smokes.
Words are my signature method of expression, for better or for worse. This gift has been a two-edged sword- having served me well and kicked my trash all over the place when I am having one of those days where a colonoscopy sounds like a nice way to get some R&R. Fun fact: Christians are human beings.
However, Jesus’ name has never been a get-out-of-hell-free card to let people off the hook when you join their pricey MLM and then they stop responding when you have a bad reaction to their essential oils.
If you run into one of my personal no-fly zones, you may trigger my emotional Neanderthal and she is hideous. But I hope I remember to think about things like: Would Jesus be proud of how I’m acting? Of what I’m saying? Would someone look at what I’m doing right now and see Jesus in me? These are important questions to ask every day, all the time. When someone dies for me (granted, it’s just been that one Person), I really do my best to try and honor that sacrifice with how I live.
Romans 3:23 says (I’m paraphrasing here), that everyone, Christian or “other”, is a jerk and deserves to be punched in the face at some point or another. Myself included. I am one of those “nobody puts Baby in a corner” type of personalities. (I’m a hoot at parties though). In the Bible, James, the brother of Jesus called the tongue, “…a fire, a world of evil.” (James 3) Preach.
King David wrote the following: “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.” (Psalm 141:3) And this: “I will take heed of my ways so that I do not sin with my tongue.” (Psalm 39:1) And this, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord.” (Psalm 19:14) Sounds like he may have had an Alicia-level mouth on him, amen.
Let’s be honest, there really isn’t anything a Christian can say or do that someone, somewhere won’t give Jesus the “credit” for- whether you flip the bird while driving with a Jesus fish on your bumper or overreact when someone moves your blankets at the Plaza when you were saving spots for your church group’s 4th of July shindig. Even so, we are representing Jesus to the world and I hope that when you take a super long time fiddling with your 1,001 coupons at Price Chopper, I remember that while I’m waiting behind you.
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