Have you ever noticed being a Christian is a lot like being Molly Ringwald in a John Hughes movie?
(Just imagine what it is like for my Hubby... he gets comments like this ALL the time!)
It was like she always had to choose between two guys.
Guy #1- The Bad Boy. You the one I am talking about. Longish hair, earring, flannel plaid shirt, holey jeans, scar somewhere that made his look mysterious. He probably drives a motorcycle and looks darn good doing it. (And yes, I did just describe Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club. Let us take a moment and remember... Dreamy.)
Guy #2- The Good Guy. Cute, great grades, works hard, the kind of guy you take to meet your parents. He drives an '82 Chevette and wears sensible shoes.
Life with #1 leads you down a path of dirty motels and running from the coppers. Later you find yourself trading cigarettes and candy bars with Big Bertha for protection in prison. (I may or may not have watch a little too much Investigation Discovery this weekend.)
Life with #2 leads to 2.5 children in a nice house, in a nice neighborhood spending the rest of your days holding hands and gazing lovingly at one another.
You know who she SHOULD pick but deep down you want her to pick the Bad Boy. And when she does and that goes to h-e-double hockey sticks in a hand basket, you smugly say "I knew she should have gone with Eric Stoltz in Some Kind of Wonderful!"
And while you may be reliving some really great 80's movies right now, you are probably wondering where in the world this post is going. My Christian GPS may seem a little wonky but I promise it will get us there, eventually.
There is a song by Mercy Me called So Long Self that I love. It is a song of breaking up with your "self". Like Molly having to constantly choose between #1 and #2, we have to choose between doing the right thing or listening to self. You know, that worldly part of you that causes you to make stupid mistakes or say stupid things that later has you seeking protection from a very large scary woman in prison. Or in reality and not my crazy 80's dream world, humbly walking to God and asking him to fix the mess that you have created.
Why is it so easy to pick Judd Nelson over Eric Stoltz, I mean, do the right thing instead of the worldly thing? We know what we should do, we have that voice telling us "Hit the brakes there love chops, you are getting ready to cause some problems!" and yet we ignore it and hit the gas instead. And by gas, I mean opening our mouths and letting hot air come out that should have remained behind the filter of our brain to our mouths. Because the self that we are to die to is so comfortable and so easy that we have a hard time breaking up with it.
Here is the crazy thing, I am beginning to no longer be viewed as the somewhat flaky late teen/early twenties girl I used to be. It seems that as I have "grown up", I have learned a few things that are worth sharing. I know, I am as frightened as y'all are about this. I recently lost my car keys for two weeks and yet, God wants to use me to help lead people to him. Isn't he afraid I may lose them? I know I am. Because I can open my mouth and say one thing to someone that will completely change how they view me, what I do, and why I do it. I have wonderful yet crazy people that come to me for advice. What if I say the wrong thing and it brings them grief or sends them in a direction that is the opposite of where God wants to lead them? Or what if the worldly part of me feels differently than the Godly part of me and she rears her ugly head? Honey do not think for one second that behind every Southern Lady there is not a redneck woman just biding her time, because there is. What if I choose the bad girl over the good girl? Now not only can I cause a mess in my life, I can cause one in someone else's. I could send someone on a run from the coppers and it will be my responsibility to supply them with candy bars and cigarettes.
Galatians 2:20 says:
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Right there in black and white, So Long Self. Again this is where we go back to being Christ like. The whole WWJD thing became cliche with the bracelets and bumper stickers. It is a good question and a good start. But the better question is "Jesus, what would you like for me to do?" How does He want you to proceed? What does He want you to say? Where is He guiding you in this process? Are we taking the time to ask Him? Or are we letting self just take over and insert mouth in foot? Are we allowing self to guide our actions not realizing that people are watching not only what we say but what we do? It is a constant struggle for me and a battle I lose more that I would like. People want to know if we Christians are putting our money where our mouths are. Are we?
I love how God gave us the perfect instruction manual. Maybe I need to tattoo these to my forehead so I remember.
Proverbs 21:23
Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.
1 Peter 3:10
For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit;
Proverbs 4: 23
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
2 Peter 1:4
By which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
love- j
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