Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Steppin' in Dog Poop and You Feel Fine?

I'm hanging out with my aunt and uncle's dog Sadie while watching America's Got Talent. I just watched Aaralyn (6?) and Izzy (10?). I didn't see them in the auditions or in the Vegas round--I've only been watching AGT this season occasionally. Anyway, the song Aaralyn and Izzy performed tonight seemed fun (Aaralyn wrote it), and maybe even a bit funny, yet I think it's ridiculous. Okay, so ridiculous in this case has positive and negative connotations. Positive: it was ridiculous in that it was (at first) a kind of stupid, funny song--the funny type of ridiculous. Negative: it was ridiculous in that it was stupid and NOT funny. Here are the lyrics:

Me and Izzy playing outside
Steppin' in dog poop
And we feel fine (or something like that)

Sounds like a kid-type of song, right, which is where the funny part comes in. Yet how many kids, or people in general, play outside and purposely step in dog poop just because they can? Okay, so they may feel fine, but they stink.

And this is where the Holy Spirit comes in. He showed me some things about this seemingly innocent kid song almost immediately after it was performed.

How many times do we play outside? Outside of God's Word, outside of His commands, outside of His will, outside of His covering? And we step in dog poop just because we can--we do things that aren't necessarily good for us to do, or that are NOT good for us to do, just because we can. We sin just because we can, and we feel fine. Of course we feel fine...sin is pleasurable for a season. We feel fine, and we STINK. When we play in crap, we're going to smell like crap. When we sin, we smell like sin to God. And just because we feel fine at the moment doesn't mean we're not going to have to deal with the crap on our shoe--the sin in our life. We'll either be proud of it and show it to everyone (sharing the stink), try to hide it (masking the smell unsuccessfully), try to throw it away (forgetting about the truth), or clean it up (going to Christ, admitting we sinned, and asking Him to take care of it).

Of course, when we step in dog poop one time, it's only going to stink for so long. Yet, when we keep stepping in that dog poop, we're going to continue to stink. As Jesus told the woman caught in the act of adultery, we need to "Go and sin no more."

My impromptu version of the song:

Me and my family
Playing inside
Seeking Christ's will
For we are His Bride

(What bride wants to stink for her bridegroom?)

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

It's Up to Us, Not Just Our Shepherds

I was cleaning a bit today and found this journal entry from some years ago:

In my Specific Methods in English textbook, Exploring and Teaching the Language Arts, something in the chapter we discussed last night really riles me. In chapter 10, there's a section called, "Back to the Basics". In this section, it talked about how people blame English teachers for people not speaking and writing using "proper" English.

This is what I wrote in the margin: "Why is everything always up to teachers? They get blamed for what people don't know, but since they have to teach people everything, what do they expect? If parents and other adults don't reinforce what teachers teach, well...there's only so much teachers can do..."

This reminds me of Pastor Jeff. As a pastor, there is only so much he can do in trying to teach us the Word and about God. We often expect pastors to tell us everything there is to know about the Bible and God, and we often blame them when we don't know as much as we think we should. If we expect pastors to teach us everything about God and His Word, then no wonder we don't know much. If we don't get into the Word ourselves to reinforce and memorize and hide in our hearts, then who are we to blame our pastors? We have to be active in learning the Word, not passive. 

Pastors are our shepherds, not our spoon-feeders. Shepherds lead and guide their sheep; they don't give them everything they want when they want it. Shepherds try to protect their sheep and care for their sheep, but the shepherd can't do much if his sheep choose not to eat or put one foot in front of the other to follow him. Yes, the shepherd may carry a sheep,   but on;y until that sheep can walk on its own. The shepherd can only carry one sheep at a time, and only for so long. The shepherd needs to rest, too. Yes, the shepherd would breathe for his sheep if he could, but that's not what God intended. God made sheep to do their part, as well.

So true.