140 Words Or Less

“If we’re not careful, it gets retardedly fast”.  It was Good Friday and I was talking to our worship band about the tempo of a song we were rehearsing. As the sentence left my mouth I wanted to grab it and shove it back in. I could have used a dozen different non-derogatory words that actually exist, but out popped “retardedly”.   My original angle for this blog post was how I’m glad I’m not actually famous because in our “Twitter Mob” society, a slip of the tongue like that can cost you a career. I didn’t actually write it because it did nothing but prove that however good I think I am, I’m awful enough that even when I speak hurtful, unthinking words about beautiful, God-created people, the person I’m still most worried about having hurt is myself.   Word Count: 140 

My grandfather once wrote a letter to my brother and I about a picture he'd seen of our band, Scarlet Tag (The name could have been much worse. In true evangelical teenager fashion, our alternative idea was Rare Pearls). His issue was that our band looked too unhappy and rebellious. He felt that our faces should display the joy that comes from knowing Jesus instead of copying the cynical attitude of the rock stars of "the world". To illustrate, he sent along a photo of one of those travelling family gospel groups, with big smiles, heavy make-up and lots of hands resting gently on shoulders. I hated that picture because it represented everything 19 year old me was beginning to despise about Christianity. I remember fighting with my Dad in the car on the way to church one morning and him lamenting that he would now have to "pretend to be happy". The smiles in that picture were the same smile my Dad wore on the platform that Sunday. I promised myself that I was

Jesus once encountered a man born blind.  The disciples asked Jesus "Who's sin caused this man's blindness, his parents or his own?"  Jesus told them "Neither...but this happened so Gods work might be displayed in him".  After Jesus healed the man, the Pharisees, convinced that Jesus was a sinner, tried to persuade the formerly blind man to deny that it was Jesus who healed him.  When he refused, they banished him from the temple. By looking for sin in the life of the blind man, the disciples failed to see the possibility of God at work in their midst.  By looking for sin in the life of Jesus, the Pharisees failed to see God Himself present in their midst. If we are blind, it’s possible that sin is the culprit.  More likely, our self-righteousness and judgmental attitudes are to blame.  Word Count: 140