Growth Relationships

Little Lies

“In your eyes, I am complete”

“She saved my soul from the devil”

“I could not ask for more”

“Forever and ever, never will part”

For music fans, all of the above quotations can be rightly attributed to a song that includes it. The songs range from Pop to Country to Oldies and they all share one common denominator…they all contain lies.

Now, most people will sing along to these songs without any strike of conscience. And maybe that’s normal. But for thinking people, especially thinking Christians, we have to consider the impact of the words and the thoughts that we allow to infiltrate the way we perceive the world. After all, as Scripture says “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). If this is true, then even the words we say carelessly, maybe especially so, gives us revelations about our heart. And if we unthinkingly repeat untruths just because they are set to a catchy tune, what does that say about us?

Because you see, the challenge with these little lies is that most of the time we don’t recognize them as such. We think that someone else really can complete us, or that they can save our soul, give us all that we’ve ever wanted, or will be with us for always. However the only being that all of these can really be attributed to is God. When we place someone else in God’s place, we are exchanging Him for something less than Him. In other words, we are creating and serving an idol – a caricature of what God offers that can only be expected to disappoint.

The logic may seem extreme, which is maybe the point. We don’t recognize the seriousness of “little lies” and that is why they can often have the greatest damage.

Continue Reading

Growth

Significant Differences

When the dissolution of a marriage is announced, it’s not uncommon for the stated reason to be “irreconcilable differences.” In fact, this has seemed to become a catch phrase for any decision on the couple’s part to abandon the effort to save their marriage. How many of the differences truly are irreconcilable is hard to say. It seems that many could be resolved if each partner was willing to let go of their pride instead of their marriage. Significant differences happen, but it’s probably less often the case than divorce papers would make us believe.

What’s true in marriage, is also true in other relationships. Rarely are we unable to resolve differences with one another if maintaining the relationship instead of our ego is the goal. However, as Christians, we are called to maintain some significant differences from those who haven’t put their faith in Christ. These differences can sometimes serve as the basis for irreconciliation. When we have to choose between relationships and Christ, we must choose Christ every time. However, in order for this decision to mean anything the differences we claim must be tangible and concrete. In other words, our non-Christian friends should be able to tell what these differences are, and understand why our lives must not be lived in parallel with theirs.

Which brings me to the point of this little discourse. Sometimes, the differences we claim are indistinguishable to the world around us. A local Christian radio station has been playing Christmas music since the day after Thanksgiving. They position this format change as “Christmas music with a difference.” However, a few dial turns up the radio there is another, secular station playing Christmas music and I would venture to say that if the listeners didn’t know which station the radio was tuned to, they wouldn’t be able to tell from the music. The exact same songs about Santa, reindeers and snowmen are played on each, just as songs about angels, shepherds and the birth of the babe are featured. Whatever the difference is between the two stations, it must not have anything to do with the content and in a format where content is king, it seems that’s the only difference that could truly be significant.

If Christians are going to claim a difference from the world, it would be good if they were clear about what those differences are. If our lives (and our music) are the same as others, what’s the point of calling it Christian? When we are placing Christ’s name on something, let’s hope that we are doing so on that which glorifies Him. And that is always going to create a significant difference.

Continue Reading