Being gracious, part 2.

This has been so heavy on my heart recently that it might just spill over into other topics, but I’ll try to keep it concise and to the point.

I have a problem: I am too critical.

Not the kind of critical where I stare at myself, hate my own flaws then slave away to fix them; I am the analyze-people, pick-at-sermons, make-judgments kind of critical. The worst kind. I am especially critical when dealing with other Christians and their beliefs (when their doctrine differ from my own.) When I hear something that I know is not doctrinally “safe”, I think “ooo, watch it buddy, red flag on that theology right thurr. If only he knew what I knew – man, he would change the way he thinks.” I am ridiculously critical, and I hate it.

I’m willing to bet a few of you out there can relate to me on this. It’s with great sincerity and honesty (and caution) in love that I also offer this point: I believe that Grace makes us (if we let it) VERY critical.

Making words count.

“”And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Matt 6:5-8

I’ve been thinking about the way we use our words when we pray, and I notice that at times I (along with many others) insert God’s name randomly into my prayer without thinking.

“Dear Lord, I thank you so much Lord God, and Lord God I praise you for everything your’e doing Lord God, and [etc.]“

Now don’t get me wrong – there is POWER in His name, and we should rightly call upon Him when we pray. However, I realize sometimes I use it in excess without recognizing or meditating on the holiness and sanctity that is His name. I believe that is in essence using the Lord’s name in vain (calling it without a reverent heart). Instead, I think we should pray not only with fervency and passion, but also a clear mind that recognizes who God is, what His Name entails, and have the conscious attitude of humility and worship before Him.

I think the same thing applies to when we worship in song. Why do we sometimes just stare at the screen, singing the words with our lips with our hearts asleep? Why do we allow ourselves to taint the worship with feelings of apathy towards our Maker? Recently I’ve been finding it harder to do so.

Anyway, just a few thoughts.

Gifts.

I’d like to address an issue that has been bothering me recently. There are a few people I know that do not like accepting gifts at all. They aren’t ‘humbug’ people who hate kind acts and such, but I think they really do feel like they’re doing me a favor by telling me not to go through the effort of helping them. Imagine what life would be like if we did this with the Lord!

Salvation is a gift given to us by God, one that we should gladly accept. He paid the ultimate price and made the hardest sacrifice there is to bring us this gift: slaying His only Son. What are we to say in response? “Hey no thanks, God. It’s really great that you did all this for me, but I didn’t need it. You did all that for little old me? Nah, don’t do it. I’d rather you spend it on someone better.”

The X Factor

Another bored night brings you the best of Detective Wang’s musings into a girl’s world. I’ve actually thought about this one for several months now, and sadly the more I think about it, the more I believe it to be true. Tonight we investigate the X factor.

I was recently talking with a male buddy (which happens almost constantly) about girls (also almost constantly.) He was telling me about a typical situation that he had with a girl he knew. Now, he didn’t explicitly mention that there was something wrong; in fact he seemed rather blithe. However, just hearing (from his recounting of the story) how he reacted to certain things she said and the mannerisms he used around her made me cringe. I REALLY felt like this guy had no idea of the implications of his speech and the consequences of his actions. After this incident, I started noticing more and more that the way he acted around girls would either a) weird them out, b) hurt them, or c) make them angry. The mystery of it all was that he was completely oblivious to the reactions he got from girls; it all seemed normal to him.

He had the X factor.