Low Expectations

Everyone has a customer service story. It's a tough job. Eight hours a day, they only talk to people who have a problem or complaint. Working for a busy service, they may hear hundreds of complaints (some legitimate, some not), gripes, lies, and curse words a week. It's a tough job, and I'm surprised there aren't MORE horror stories of representatives who've had enough and snapped on a customer. Knowing the person on the phone may have just been called every name in the book, and a few that aren't in the book by the previous caller, I try to have some grace and kindness to the people on the other side of the phone when I have to call. That being said, some bring it on themselves. Like anyone else in the industry, some people are just bad at their jobs.

I had to call my internet provider because my service was terrible. Speed tests showed that I had slow internet by 1996 AOL dial-up standards. I called to have someone check it out, and when I told the representative the issue, I was told, "Well, you should be thankful you have internet. Some people live in places where they can't even get internet." I was dumbfounded. While it was true, I should be thankful for the blessing of the internet, I pay an exorbitant amount of money each month for a service I was not getting. I was not ungrateful, I simply wanted what I paid for.

 

I thought of that when I read an article by Micheline Maynard in the Washington Post suggesting Americans need to "lower their expectations." We are spoiled by fast delivers, fast food, and products on the shelves. The article was a bit of a political spin. Don't blame the people in charge or expect services you pay for. Lower your expectations. There's been a lot of commentary on that piece, but the funny thing is, the principle of what she said wasn't wrong. Americans have had it good for a long time. I have a box on the wall that with the push of a button, my house stays the temperature I prefer, no matter what the weather is outside. With the internet (as slow as it is) I have access to untold amounts of information at my fingertips. I can have a conversation with my wife about what we want for supper, not will we eat supper. I have it good now, but it's likely going to get tough. Thanksgiving is around the corner, and it's possible what we want isn't on the shelf or the price is so high we just can't afford what's there. Being thankful for what I have doesn't mean I must be blind to how we got here. I can both blame people in charge for their unmatched incompetence and be thankful for what I have. I can recognize God's judgment on idolatrous ungrateful people and blame foolish people for making foolish decisions that brought about the crisis. 

 

A Revolutionary Act

A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun. Without pronouns, we would speak like a second grader writes, repeating the noun over and over. "I love dogs. Dogs are good. Dogs are fun. Dogs eat a lot." Pronouns have been around as long as language. Notice the personal pronouns in Genesis 1:27 which says, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." God created male and female, the Lord (he) created male, (him). If we go a few pages over in Genesis 3:6, we find some more personal pronouns, "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." With masculine and feminine pronouns for the male and female protagonists, I know what just happened. A male uses the pronouns he and him and a female uses the pronouns she and her. The husband is the male, the wife is the female.

Down south, "y'all" (a second person pronoun) is useful when speaking to a group of people where the listeners are included, but it's "they" (a third person pronoun) if it's a group of people that neither you nor I are a part of. There aren't any circumstances where "they" will work about yourself, because "self", is an individual, a distinct, single person. Of course, there is the majestic plural, or sometimes known as the "royal we" but that should be reserved for monarchs who can speak of themselves as "we" but since we still live in a constitutional republic, it's best to leave the plural pronouns for when there are at least two people, or if you are demon possessed. Mark 5:8-9, "My name is Legion: for we are many."

The fad of choosing pronouns can't last because the whole premise is built on the idea of denying the truth. John McWhorter, arguing for a brave new world of pronouns, wrote, "for thousands of years, in the ancestor of most of today’s European languages on the Ukranian steppes…its speakers were using pronouns that sounded roughly like “me,” “you,” and “we” (not to mention the “tu” familiar from French and Spanish). That’s how hardy pronouns are." But, McWhorter misses the point, and I blame his atheism. Pronouns are hardy because they reflect basic truths of reality. It's just a fact there are two sexes, male and female, and you are either one or the other, and that won't ever change. The only way this will catch on is if it's enforced with a heavy hand. It's hard to force people to deny reality, even with constant propaganda and social influence. It's the Devil who is the father lies. "For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth," 2 Corinthians 13:8.

Bitter Soul

 

It's strange, the things you think about at a funeral. My grandmother passed away last Sunday at the age of 88. I recalled a time, when I was just a small boy, visiting her during the summer. It was hot, and I was thirsty. On the top shelf of the fridge were these very small cans of juice. I never had pineapple juice before and to my great delight, it was delicious. In fact, if memory serves, I had at least another couple before I left. My next visit, I went straight to the fridge, opened the can and turned it up and then almost threw up. I ran to the sink and spit the rest out and tried to flush the taste out of my mouth. Some people (including my grandparents apparently) like the taste of grapefruit juice. But, when you’re a boy, expecting the sweetness of pineapple, grapefruit is a dreadful surprise.

 

Grapefruit juice may be the opposite of pineapple. One is very sweet, the other very bitter. Grapefruit has a bite, it's a hard, pungent taste. We can think about the bitterness of the soul the same way.  Notice how Paul, after contrasting the walk of the world to walking in the spirit, concludes this section in Ephesians 4:31-32, by setting bitterness against the Christian spirit, "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Bitterness of soul is the opposite of being kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving.

 

A bitter person starts out angry. It could be justified, someone could have sinned against them. It could be unjustified, or they could be angry about some perceived injustice that didn't really happen. Some people have sinful anger at funerals, because their loved one is gone, and they don't like it. When anger is never dealt with, it sits on the shelf of your heart and spoils. God gave us anger for a reason. Anger causes you to react, and it's true purpose is to do good,  whether to defend the helpless, to defend the faith, or to bring people to justice. Though sinful anger doesn't have a righteous purpose, it still has to be dealt with. Anger (good or bad) doesn't have a long shelf  life, so when you hang on to it, feed it, think about it, your anger grows, spoils, and turns to bitterness.

 

If someone sins against you and they don't pay, there's no catharsis. You hang on to that anger, waiting for the day of wrath. Then you are bitter and will start being bitter about everything. A Christian, who has been forgiven of great sins ought not to have a bitter soul. The scowl of a bitter person doesn't match tenderheartedness. Bitterness will never pass with time, you have to "put it away" by turning to Christ. Repent, believe and be set free.

 

 

 

 

Assaying a Sermon

 

Somewhere around 1380 BC,  King Burraburiash of Babylon wrote a letter to the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhophis IV about a shipment of gold they received. Burraburiash thought the delivery was suspect and had his people put the gold in the fire to test it and three quarters melted away. They were apparently swindled with counterfeit gold. This is the first recorded account of fire assaying. The ancient process is still used today for analyzing and determining the ratio of precious metal in ore. Though today, the King of Babylon would have just taken a sample of the shipment, rather than putting the whole shipment in the crucible, the principle is still the same. Fire assaying (to over simplify it) is putting the precious metal in a crucible at around 2,000 degrees to separate the precious metals from the slag. As soon as people started minting coins, bad guys started making forgeries. Then everyone had to test their money. You might think you have an ounce of gold but instead have a gold plated chunk of lead.

That's the idea Paul had when he said, "prove all things," in 1 Thessalonians 5:21. It's not just coins that are counterfeited. Since the fall, as long as there has been truth to declare, there have been counterfeiters trying to make a profit on the cheap. Put all things you hear to the test to see if what someone is telling you is the truth or a lie. You have to be aware and on guard. Unfortunately, you can’t believe everything you hear. If a preacher got behind the pulpit, opened his Bible then began to tell Christians to follow the example of Jeroboam and make a golden calf and place it just before the door of the building so the members can bow and give thanks to Baal before coming to Sunday school, I suspect that wouldn’t fly. That’s a counterfeit, but not a very good one. A good counterfeit looks and feels the same as the original copy. The dangerous false preacher is the one who has a message that is 99% truth but adds 1% of false gospel, which turns out to be no gospel at all.

That’s why you have to “prove” all things. Separate the precious from the slag. Don’t believe every word you hear, especially when someone tells you they have a word from God. We put everything to the test by the Bible (Romans 12:1-2) to compare what people are saying God said by what the Bible says. The false teachers in Galatia were right in the doctrine of the church, baptism, sin, and many other truths. They preached that salvation was by grace, through faith in Jesus. But they added one thing –  you also had to be circumcised. So in a sermon of 5,000 words, 4,950 could have been right on the money, until they added that one work to the gospel, which made the whole a damnable heresy. Be careful out there, prove all things.