Sow a Thought

Sow a thought

Reap an action

Sow an action

Reap a habit

Sow a habit

Reap a destiny

---Drowning Machine by Tourniquet

*Yes, stop rubbing your eyes, there are indeed song lyrics here….*

I have been thinking about things that we watch, read, listen to, and say, even in jest. When we say things, like curse words, even in jest or in trying to make a point, I still think that we harden ourselves against saying crude things. When we listen to music that talks about how miserable life is, it can creep in to your mind that yes, in deed, this life is rather rotten.

I have cut down dramatically on the non-Christian music that I listen to, the main reason is that I spend so much time thinking about non-God issues (you all know what I mean by that, yes, yes, I know that God is involved in everything) that when I am listening to music it should point me towards God, towards what is good.

I used to work at the Humane Society and one of their big things they pushed was that animal abuse is very serious, most child abusers abused animals when they were younger, same goes for mass murderers. It does not happen over-night that you suddenly decide to beat you children to death and then go on a killing spree across the nation. Even with our hardened, despicable consciences we know to do such a thing is reprehensible.

We can agree on that, but then wonder why so many people in the church act the same way the world does. We steep ourselves in their culture, their music, we use their language and utter their curse words, then we wonder why we aren’t being lights to a dark world. Why we aren’t shining beacons for the lost? Why is Muslimism the fastest growing religion? Is it because it is so different from everything else?

Quick quote: “You notice that the most recent suicide bomber converted from Catholicism to the “religion of peace” BEFORE blowing herself up.”

If we want to be lights we can’t surround ourselves in darkness, if we want to draw the lost to us we need to be different. I remember a conversation in which the question of whether or not using crude and vulgar language was appropriate, I say no. I we talk like them, and listen to the same music as them, and watch the same movies as them, what is differentiating us from them? They won’t come to us because we drop “f-bombs” in sermons, they will not be in awe of our speaking abilities if we call Jesus “one bad mother----,” they won’t come crying for forgiveness if we call them pieces of (excrement), even if they are.

If we are to be different, we need to act it. Just as what comes out of us in influenced heavily by what we put in it, so our actions are influenced heavily by what we think about. Just as the song says, it starts out as a thought, before you know it you are mired in a destructive habit that now controls your destiny.

Fritz