Relationships

Pattern of Scoff

In high school, a friend of mine and I used to have an ongoing contest to see how badly we could “burn” (i.e insult) each other. I’m not sure how it got started, but we thought it was a great display of our intellectual prowess to take seemingly innocuous statements and turn them into jokes at the other’s expense. We professed not to mind, because we knew that the sarcasm was rooted in love (as well as an ill-defined competition.) However, someone wisely pointed out that even if we didn’t mind, it wasn’t the best witness to those who heard our jests. We might know that they were rooted in love, but the audience probably didn’t.

Yet, this type of sardonic banter as become commonplace in our culture, and in our churches. We insult each other for fun and then laugh it off because the other person knows that we are kidding. However, Proverbs 22:10 says that instead of laughing we should “drive out a scoffer.” It goes on to tell us that when we do so “strife will go out, and quarreling and abuse will cease.”

This is a powerful statement. We have have become accustomed to “excusing” scoffing as if it is just part of how we interact. As long as it’s funny, and as long as it isn’t offensive, it seems “acceptable.” However, this verse reminds us that even when we think we are being funny, when we are mocking someone else we are proponents of strife. Even if it doesn’t erupt in that moment, mocking begets discord.  Since we are supposed to be united with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and showing love to those who don’t know Him, scoffing should have no place in our pattern of speech. Instead, our words should be rich with love.

It’s tempting to fool ourselves into thinking that our actions don’t have consequences when we don’t witness those consequences immediately. The same is true with our words. Perhaps the reason “we can’t all just get along” is because our words convey that we don’t. Even the simple words. Even the jokes.

We might think that our everyday sarcasm doesn’t have an effect, but Scripture says that it does. Scripture says that our pattern of speech towards other people and about other people is important.  Let’s make sure that it is a pattern that gives glory to our God.

 

What are effective ways to “watch our words” to ensure that they are glorifying to God?

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Being Content

Worshipping What Should Have Been

Sometimes when reading the Old Testament, I have to remind myself not to be too hard on the Israelites. Even though I often want to shake my head at their antics, I realize that the same sinful tendencies that drove them to trade a relationship with the Living God for senseless sacrifice to foreign idols are far too often present in my own life as well. I may not bow down to a golden calf, but just like them I am tempted to put lesser things in the place where only God should rightly occupy. I am tempted to sacrifice my relationship with Him for temporal satisfactions.

Usually, in modern day conversations of “idol worship” we hear talk of the things that the world acclaims – prestige, fame, money and comfort. These are all things that many have been lead astray by, just like the Israelites were swayed by the gods of foreign nations. However, there are less obvious, perhaps even more insidious “gods” that we worship. One of these is the idol of “what should have been.”

You might not be familiar with this idol by its name, but you are probably more familiar with the acts of worship that its followers initiate. It’s the bowing down to our hopes and dreams – placing them as central importance in our lives. It’s the fight we have with the living God when His plans do not conform to our own. It’s the railing against our circumstances instead of the thankfulness for His gifts.

It’s a tempting god because in our culture we are taught from a young age that we should “reach for the stars.” “What do you want to be when you grow up?” is a question that we ask children long before they have the capacity to truly think through that answer. “Dream big dreams” we’re told, and we celebrate those who do. And those dreams may be good. But if they are contrary to what God has planned for our life, we must be willing to sacrifice them for the glory of our King. Our hopes and our dreams aren’t what are most important – He is. Yet too often, we’re willing to set aside our worship of our Savior in order to celebrate and esteem our carefully orchestrated plans.

And we may not even realize that we are doing this until those dreams don’t become a reality. Naturally, we fill short-shifted, like somehow we had done our part but God hasn’t done His. We tell Him that we’ve done all He’s asked yet what we’ve really done is what we wanted. Because if we were worshiping Him, and not what should have been, our circumstances wouldn’t change the object of our esteem. When things turn out differently than expected, we would be celebrating what He’s doing, not fighting for what we desire. We would still be worshiping Him, not complaining that our circumstances have changed.

It’s often hard to resist bowing down to the idol of what should have been. It’s a tempting idol especially in our culture, in this day.  Yet, we should rightly worship the God Who Is, and put our hopes and dreams into His loving hands.

 

How do you make sure you are worshiping the living God and fight the temptation to worship the idol of what should have been?

 

 

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