Lakeside Visitor January 2010

 

In youth group we’ve been talking a lot about the way our lives look to others and what that says about God. How do we dress? What kinds of things do we do in our free time? What do we do at work? How do we behave with our friends? Family members? People we don’t like all that much? How do we talk? What does this say about God?

Jesus talks about our lives in Matthew 8 with the analogy of fruit-bearing trees: good fruit from good trees and bad fruit from bad trees. No rocket science there. No one would go to an apple tree and get ticked off when they couldn’t pick an orange. But we do this all the time with our words, don’t we? We are abusive with our words, we insult and tear others down, and are mean for reasons even we ourselves don’t understand. But when someone does the same to us, we stare off into the cold, cold night, so tormented by the unjust way in which we’ve been put upon–“Why, God? Why poor, wonderful me?”

A lonely teardrop darkens the dirt. And somewhere, all too near, Satan laughs. And why not? We are all humorous in those times when our double standard of speech is used against us. We become victims of the kryptonite we use to harm others, and we see the damage of our words reflected back to us in another’s words. But is it enough to show us how wrongly we often speak? I admit, when I am hurt by someone’s words I do not immediately think of how to bless them in return so the vicious cycle dies with me. I work out a monologue of potential ‘zingers’ that would blow them out of the proverbial water, and might even say out loud, “I should’ve said that.” Maybe we are justified in what we say while the other person is just being mean. Could that be it? Yeah, right. If you believe that you might be the type of person who licks fences or counts all the way to ‘Z’ while sniffing the color purple.

Dang it, there I go again. Well, we’re all learning. And this year we’ll talk about how to use our words to help and heal, instead of hurt and humble. After all, if we are to be God’s children we should be about the work of taking on the person of Christ so others, through us, are drawn to Him… and not pushed away.