(Here's one I put online four years ago and got into trouble for, mostly from my wife, who simultaneously admires me and questions my sanity at times.)
I make no claims to being on course toward a lifetime achievement award for political correctness or even necessarily for knowing when to tell something and when to keep it to myself, but something happened yesterday with my two grandsons that illustrates a point that just has to be made. Plus, it's just plain funny - at least to a biased granddaddy who has been accused more than once of talking when it would have been a better idea just to shut up. If you're one who thinks it is uncouth or even vulgar to tell such a story, I offer you my apology in advance. Pray for me. Sometimes even I question if I have good sense.
My grandsons, Jonathan and Jeremy, were here with us while their mother went to the vet to pick up their dog, Aslan. Actually, Aslan is more like a horse. He's a Labradoodle - apparently a cross between a Labrador Retriever and a Poodle. (You read it right.) This breed of dog is extremely friendly but is very large, not always a good combination with children in the house whose height is approximately the same as the dog. It's his friendliness that presented the problem at hand this week.
Making conversation with my grandsons and thinking the dog went for shots of some kind, I asked, "Why did Mommy have to take Aslan to the vet?" Without hesitation, seven year old Jeremy answered, "Because he is acting crazy so he had to get his manhood cut off." Eight year old Jonathan began to howl with laughter and screamed, "That IS crazy!"
"You boys had better be careful not to ever act crazy around your mother!" I heard laughingly coming out of my own mouth as if I had some sort of grandfatherly Tourette's Syndrome. Thankfully, the statement fell flat on their seven and eight year old ears. Unfortunately, the same wasn't true with Melanie who yelled my name from the kitchen in a way that, after 35 years, I've come to recognize means that my own life may be in peril.
Poor Aslan. I thought from the beginning that a Shetland Pony would have made a better pet if my daughter and son-in-law were bound and determined to buy a gargantuan pet for their kids. But I'm not sure he deserved to be made a lifelong eunuch. Surely there must have been some way to teach him to behave without going to that extreme.
The application? My daughter was the legalist in this story and the veterinarian was the exacting hand of stern religion. Aslan is anybody in the world of dead religion who has the gall to live unashamedly, acting like who we are without inhibition. Live free and there are always those out there who'll try to make a eunuch out of you. Avoid these people at all costs. Veterinarian Community Church may look like a pretty place from the outside, but if you're not careful they'll take away your spiritual manhood and leave you singing soprano in the church choir.
I think it's funny, LOL.
ReplyDeleteHad to laugh, Steve - kids are a hoot! Funny, yet the application is just too darn real.
ReplyDeleteAs followers of Jesus, this is what we should be writing! No Christianese language here! Awesome!
ReplyDeleteWe have a black Lab, so our boys know exactly what you mean!
ReplyDeletePoint made! Will never forget this illustration!
ReplyDeleteDear Steve,
ReplyDeleteI have always said God teaches us so much through our children...now I see I have even more lessons to learn through future grandchildren! Thank you for your willingness to be raw with your honesty in the stories you share. Please know that the timing in my reading this blog today, affirmed in my heart what God is teaching me through a present storm in my life...He has brought me to a place of understanding that there is freedom in living naked before Him. Not doing or saying things that will bring approval from man, but being willing to be raw and honest before my Father allows me the room to let Him develop and work in me to be who He created me to be. He fills my broken vessel up and what overflows is from Him...not from me and not for the approval of others.
The sad thing about this process is that some Christians (many with heartfelt good intentions) can thwart it by their expectations and comments. There are times that their words can cause so much pain that many of us stray from our nakedness and scurry to make a change...much like putting on a mask again. We allow their words to cause us shame as we pay attention to how they view the freedom God has given us to live raw and naked before Him. In essence, I believe they don't really feel comfortable with God's ability to work in our lives. Maybe they are not patient with His timing...or worst yet, they may believe we need to put on an act until God does the work.
In the past, I made many poor choices because I listened to these comments, I will not blame others for my poor choices, but God is showing me the importance of acknowledging my own thought process that gave birth to those choices. I see now that my choosing to take so much time to listen to man infringed on the time I had been taking to listen to my Father. In doing so, I allowed poison to be poured into my vessel. Although I was still going to my Father out of thirst, I was simultaneously drinking from the well of man. Consequently when my cup overflowed it was not a reflection of Christ, but a reflection of the taste of Him mixed with the bitter taste of man. This bitter mixture does not lift up the real Jesus, only a poor and untrue imitation of who He is when the poison of legalism is at work. The lie of this man-made picture of Christ gets in the way of many who are seeking to drink from the True Well.
Thanks so much for being used of God to lead us to the only well that satisfies,
Cindy Leigh
Cindy,
ReplyDeleteThank you for such a well thought out note.I agree that we've all been conditioned to act and talk a certain way in order to find acceptance in the Christian community.
As a pastor, I knew that I had to be careful to "protect my testimony." What people saw was the real me but it wasn't "the totally at rest" real me. I knew that if I let too much of my humanity show, it would cause repercussions so I (mostly unconsciously) learned to gauge what I could and couldn't say or do. It was easy to tell when I had crossed the boundary because there would be direct or indirect negative reaction.
What grace has taught me is that Jesus is glorified more when I'm "just me." It doesn't take me being a squeaky clean Reverend to best display His grace. It just takes Steve- the regular guy- who carries The Treasure in an earthen vessel. Authentic calls forth to authenticity in others while acting religious evokes religious responses from others. I'd rather somebody be real than be religious with me any day. And that's how I behave with other people. Some like it and some don't but I'm putting on a religious mask for anybody.
Sometimes I say things that probably didn't need to be said. Sometimes I react to people when I should just let it go. Sometimes I may "overrun the grace base" as a reaction to all the years I had to "sit in the dugout." But, I'm comfortable being me. It was a great revelation when the Holy Spirit taught me that I have been justified by God and therefore don't have to justify myself anymore.
Some people will be drawn to Jesus through His "Stevesuit." Others won't like what they see so He'll guide them on to somebody else with whom they can more easily connect. Not surprisingly, it's always the "religious types" who think I'm not as Jesusy at times as they think I should be. But I know I don't have to act Jesusy because Jesus is my very life so I don't have to act in any way. I just be myself.
So, I say all that to say that I applaud you for recognizing the things you've said you see. Don't let well-meaning religious people sanction you back into bondage. Just be you. I don't think people are looking for anything more or less than other authentic people and, in my opinion, that's all He wants us to be too.