Words Matter

[1]

Thursday, October 5, 2017

How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?  Cleanse me from these hidden faults.  Keep your servant from deliberate sins!  Don’t let them control me.  Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Psalm 19:12-14^(NLT)

Words and thoughts do matter.  It is from the heart that all the weighty matters of life issue.  What’s down in the heart eventually comes to the surface – for good or evil.  And most often, that which divides and separates us as brothers and sisters in humanity can be linked back to the “words” swirling around deep in our souls. 

For instance, in the Black Lives Matter movement the premise is that white persons, particularly those wearing blue, persecute innocent persons of color.  Such an assumption breaks down with the word innocent.  In the same way, the knee-jerk movement of Blue Lives Matter wobbles on the false assumption that the hearts and inner thoughts of white (or any) law enforcement persons are somehow innocent.

What does our Creator say about our hearts?

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.  Who really knows how bad it is?  Jeremiah 17:9^(NLT)         

As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one. Romans 3:10^(NLT)

The Psalmist, King David, understood himself.  As a human who was well-connected to his Creator, the shepherd boy-turned-king of Israel, understood his life was out of control.  Above all else, wealth, fame, power, and personal strength (David’s God had given him all that and more) David craved innocence.  And so he prayed not for justice or freedom…David prayed for cleansing.  In this psalm he prayed that God would so cleanse him that the words of his mouth and the very thoughts of his inner being would match up and be pleasing; he wanted the God of holiness and righteousness to give him clean words and thoughts that really mattered. 

Many people in our culture do not understand this as the most prescient need in our culture today.  Our biggest void in the battle for humans living together in peace, harmony and fairness is not more laws, regulation or stricter enforcement.  The biggest battle is the eternal, internal struggle for righteousness in the human heart.  Because once the inner person is freed from his lust, anger, greed, haughtiness, envy, pride and gluttony he is not only fit to live with…he is then fit to love.

For You Today

Your words do matter.  And they matter first and foremost when they’re uttered to God, honestly, without agenda.  And when God cleans up those words and inner thoughts, they will do the most good in loving your neighbor as yourself[2].

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

[2] Matthew 22:39

When "Saying Nothing" Isn't an Option

[i]

                                                                                                Friday, September 30, 2016

Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act.  Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes.  Stop being angry!  Turn from your rage!  Do not lose your temper—it only leads to harm.  For the wicked will be destroyed, but those who trust in the Lord will possess the land.  Psalm 37:7-9^(NLT)

Recent and increasing outbreaks of violent confrontations that end in death for black persons are more than a cell phone video phenomenon.  It is a sign of just how grossly-divided Cain and Abel can get.  

Our culture may congratulate itself on granting “rights” to everyone, because we are the land of the free; but if that is so, why the rage?  Why is it that the African-American community feels so disenfranchised and powerless…so much so that the push-back turns deadly?

I wish I knew.  And I wish I had a pill for fixing that would actually work.

I’m white because that is how I was born, and I grew up in the lower middle class.  I’m not a political-science guru, but I watch what happens; I listen and think, long before I get involved.  So, I’m an introverted observer who cares that all people be treated fairly, and do have not a clue as to how to make that happen. 

But, because I don’t want to be complicit in the perpetuation of racism, for me the idea of saying nothing is hardly an option.

The key is to not say too little or too much, neither too softly nor too loudly; many a well-intentioned word, because of anger or impatience, has turned evil because it was not carefully spoken as the truth in love[ii].  As the Psalmist cautions we must stop our anger and turn from our rage, even in the midst of racial outrageousness we witness on the evening news.

Outrage and anger speak from both sides of the firing line.  Black Lives Matter has a strong case against unwarranted brutal treatment at the hands of those charged with the responsibility of protecting people and their rights.  Blue Lives Matter correctly defends the innocence of officers acting appropriately in bad situations.  Some, on both sides, have touched-off more violence with hasty intemperate words. 

It is a flaming mess!

God’s Word cautions us not to take vengeance. [iii]  That is God’s purview, and we are not good at it.  The Psalmist tells us to trust God to do whatever “punishing” needs doing.

But that still doesn’t speak to what we must do in speaking against the evil of racism which threatens to destroy both those who are targets of racial bias, and those who unwisely give racism an undeserved validity with their rage and violent pushback.

Dr. Martin Luther King was a pacifist without question.  If there was to be a protest marking the unfair treatment of people, he was ready to do so without the kind of rage we see boiling-over in our streets today. 

Of course Dr. King was human with all the potential for error and sin that each of us possesses – but I believe he got this right.  We cannot let rage and anger destroy us…and that’s what it will do if we don’t dial it back!

For You Today

Take time to get to know someone with whom you disagree; you might find more common ground than you ever imagined!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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NOTES

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[i] Title Image: By Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, via Wikimedia Commons

[ii] Ephesians 4:15

[iii] Romans 12:19

Peace...Be Still!

[i]

Monday, July 11, 2016

Arise, O Lord, in anger!
    Stand up against the fury of my 

       enemies!
    Wake up, my God, and bring 

       justice!
End the evil of those who are 

       wicked,
       and defend the righteous.
For you look deep within the mind 

       and heart, O righteous God.   

Psalm 7:6, 9^(NLT)

When human anger gets out of hand I can barely think. 

And it’s not just my anger; it’s anyone’s anger!

Anger is as paralyzing as fear or first love.

With the emphasis in recent years on media coverage of crowds in an uproar over the most recent shooting of a citizen by a police officer, it has become a routine of mine, when confronted with a new incident to immediately pray for the family of the one who was shot, the officer and his/her family, and their community. 

And then I pray:  peace…be still!

I know I do not control the winds of any storm, but when my mind is reeling from seeing and hearing the anger, I always have that picture in my mind’s-eye of Jesus standing in the boat with his disciples, after having walked on those stormy waters, holding-up his hands, and commanding, peace, be still![ii] 

I’m not commanding; I’m asking Jesus to do it again for our human family, that officer, that family and their community.

To say that we have an anger problem in our culture would be to understate it by as far as east is from west! 

          ·       You see protest upon protest reflecting our 

                   culture’s boiling temperature, and 

                   beating us black and blue over police 

                   shootings 

          ·       Sit-ins, occupying this and that…

          ·       Political debate turning into character 

                  massacre

          ·       Rage on the roads

          ·       Facebook face-offs and melt-downs.

So, where does it stop?  Will there ever be a renewal of peace in the community? 

Will Andy Taylor, Barney Fife, Opie, and Miss Bea ever be heard from again?

And what would or could bring it about?

I fear I have no answers for any of that; only the image of a man…more accurately, a man-god, walking calmly on tempestuous waters, and then speaking the words that change everything:  peace…be still!

And I have hope.

For You Today

There cannot be peace in the community that isn’t in the heart first. 

So, perhaps this is a good start for this morning:  let Jesus speak to your heart those words, peace…be still!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…have a blessed day!

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NOTES

[i] Title Images: By Tony Webster, via Wikimedia Commons and Brett Gustafson, via Wikimedia Commons

[ii] Matthew 14:22-35