WORDS, MEDITATIONS & ACTIONS
January 27, 2019
Psalm 19
It may come as a shock to you all, but I’m a talker, but I wasn’t always a talker. As the story goes, I didn’t say my first actual words until I was already two years old. After that little tidbit of information is told, my family then likes to add that ever since that day I haven’t stopped talking. And while that is a bit funny, for the most part it is also true. Now I say for the most part, because not only am I a talker, I’m also a thinker. As I’ve said before, I can sit with things in my head for a long period of time and while I see this as a positive thing, I’ve learned how paralyzing the thoughts in our head can make us. Here’s the thing, though, not only can we become paralyzed by the volume of thoughts in our head leading to a type of inaction, thoughts also serve as the springboard to the actions we do take. And I know a little something about this too because not only am I a talker and a thinker, but those who have ever been around me, or ever worked with me on anything will tell you that I am also a doer. While sitting around talking and thinking about what to do, or how to proceed is critical, actually taking action is necessary.
Something about words and thoughts and actions has been pulling at me for a while now and it has to do with the overly filtered world we seem to live in today. Now for the most part this rise in popularity of the filtered life has coincided with the astronomic rise in popularity of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. So much so, that both of those platforms allow you to choose, and then use, “filters” that they’ve created when publishing pictures of your life for the world to see. Some people are such prolific publishers of their life on these platforms that I’ve been known to wondered out loud how they have time to do anything else.
Now, I could question the motivations that lead someone to post to social media so much about their life, but that is really a topic for another day. Today, my focus is elsewhere. Today, my focus is on the filter/filters, or the lack thereof, that we use when turning our thoughts into our words and our actions. And, in making the choice of what filter to use, or if we should use any filter before we speak or take action, who are we trying to please? Whose acceptance are we trying to achieve?
*********************************
This idea of our words our actions, our motivations and whose acceptance we are seeking was a topic we discussed in our staff meeting this past week. We were discussing how easily someone’s words and/or actions actually get lost because in our current state affairs, people appear to be motivated by choosing sides. Somehow, we have reached a place, or maybe we’ve just returned to a place, where being belligerent towards others, intimidating others through our words and our actions, is both unacceptable and acceptable. Somehow, we have reached a place, or returned to a place, where being disrespectful to another human being is both unacceptable and acceptable. And deciding between being unacceptable or acceptable is determined by only one thing, what team or tribe you are on. Now, I’m not sure why or how we got back here, or if humanity has ever really left this place, but it sure seems to make a lot of this life unnecessarily hard. Especially for those of us who claim to follow Jesus, who you might recall gave a new commandment to love one another.
So, during that Wednesday staff meeting conversation, I wondered aloud about the Church’s role in all of this. What is today’s church to do in a world where belligerence, disrespect and sheer hate are both unacceptable and acceptable? That is when Mark began talking about the filters (although he spoke more about lenses), or the lack thereof, being used in people’s words and actions. On previous occasions, Mark had talked about the lack of Christ in much of what we see in today’s world, especially the Church. Now, when he has talked about that before I found myself wanting something more concrete. Something I could hold onto, instead of some heady theoretical concept like the lack of Christ. Now my wants had nothing to do with Mark explaining his ideas about the lack of Christ. It was really about my inability at that time to grasp what exactly he meant. This time, though, during this discussion about words and thoughts and actions, it finally became real and concrete for me and it happened when Mark asked rhetorically, “If we ran our words and our actions through the lens of Christ, would they change?”
That is when this whole idea of the lack of Christ became concrete for me. In that moment in our conference room I was recalling instances where the lens of Christ has been replaced. I could recall things being said that clearly had not been run through the lends of Christ. I could recall actions being taken where it was now clear to me those actions were not run through the lens of Christ.
Something else became real for me too… the psalmist’s words in verse fourteen of today’s Psalm. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Just like Mark’s idea of running our words and actions through the lens of Christ, the Psalmist is praying for his words and thoughts to be acceptable to God. In the larger context of this Psalm, where the Psalmist is recognizing himself within God’s world. Where he is recognizing that what he says and thinks does in fact matter he is reminding himself and us today that we are a small part of God’s big world. And this ending plea to God, is a plea to look beyond oneself to discover God. When choosing our words… when choosing our actions, look beyond ourselves and our own self-acceptance and look for God. When choosing our words and our actions run the possibilities through the lens of Christ. Take the steps to discern what is acceptable to Christ and what is acceptable to God and let that guide you.
`
*******************************
With all of this percolating in my head it seemed fitting that last week ended with my participation in two meetings. One meeting took up the better part of my afternoon and early evening and the other lasted about an hour, but both during and after those meetings I kept wondering what the way we choose to filter our words and our actions. In that first meeting, certain people withheld so much information from certain other people, all in an effort to have their way regardless. Even before the meeting tribes had been assembled, a team had been chosen, and that team left other members of this decision-making group out in the cold. Everything about it felt wrong, except to those who had previously been chosen. What should have felt wrong to everyone involved didn’t. And even worse than that, to those previously chosen to be on “The” Team, any words coming out of the mouths of “the others” was just a reason to attack their humanity. It was awful and it seems nothing could be done to change it.
At the other meeting, the one who called the meeting had clearly spent a lot of time preparing the statements that were read. This person even had research believed to backup or substantiate her position. The problem is that the research provided didn’t pertain to the situation at hand, but there was no way to relay that information. You see, even before that meeting took place the battle lines had been drawn. Drawn so forcefully that any words that might enlighten her position were received as confrontational.
So, as I sat in those separate conference rooms on separate days I couldn’t help but wonder what filter, or what lens, these people had run their words through before choosing to speak them. I couldn’t help wondering what filter, what lens, they had run their actions through before choosing to take them. And I couldn’t help wondering whose acceptance they were seeking.
And after wondering all of that for them, I turned it around to myself and now I give this gift to you. The gift of asking God to find acceptable the words of your mouth and meditations of your heart. It is a real question and deserves your attention.
[PRAYER]
Amen!
Psalm 19
It may come as a shock to you all, but I’m a talker, but I wasn’t always a talker. As the story goes, I didn’t say my first actual words until I was already two years old. After that little tidbit of information is told, my family then likes to add that ever since that day I haven’t stopped talking. And while that is a bit funny, for the most part it is also true. Now I say for the most part, because not only am I a talker, I’m also a thinker. As I’ve said before, I can sit with things in my head for a long period of time and while I see this as a positive thing, I’ve learned how paralyzing the thoughts in our head can make us. Here’s the thing, though, not only can we become paralyzed by the volume of thoughts in our head leading to a type of inaction, thoughts also serve as the springboard to the actions we do take. And I know a little something about this too because not only am I a talker and a thinker, but those who have ever been around me, or ever worked with me on anything will tell you that I am also a doer. While sitting around talking and thinking about what to do, or how to proceed is critical, actually taking action is necessary.
Something about words and thoughts and actions has been pulling at me for a while now and it has to do with the overly filtered world we seem to live in today. Now for the most part this rise in popularity of the filtered life has coincided with the astronomic rise in popularity of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. So much so, that both of those platforms allow you to choose, and then use, “filters” that they’ve created when publishing pictures of your life for the world to see. Some people are such prolific publishers of their life on these platforms that I’ve been known to wondered out loud how they have time to do anything else.
Now, I could question the motivations that lead someone to post to social media so much about their life, but that is really a topic for another day. Today, my focus is elsewhere. Today, my focus is on the filter/filters, or the lack thereof, that we use when turning our thoughts into our words and our actions. And, in making the choice of what filter to use, or if we should use any filter before we speak or take action, who are we trying to please? Whose acceptance are we trying to achieve?
*********************************
This idea of our words our actions, our motivations and whose acceptance we are seeking was a topic we discussed in our staff meeting this past week. We were discussing how easily someone’s words and/or actions actually get lost because in our current state affairs, people appear to be motivated by choosing sides. Somehow, we have reached a place, or maybe we’ve just returned to a place, where being belligerent towards others, intimidating others through our words and our actions, is both unacceptable and acceptable. Somehow, we have reached a place, or returned to a place, where being disrespectful to another human being is both unacceptable and acceptable. And deciding between being unacceptable or acceptable is determined by only one thing, what team or tribe you are on. Now, I’m not sure why or how we got back here, or if humanity has ever really left this place, but it sure seems to make a lot of this life unnecessarily hard. Especially for those of us who claim to follow Jesus, who you might recall gave a new commandment to love one another.
So, during that Wednesday staff meeting conversation, I wondered aloud about the Church’s role in all of this. What is today’s church to do in a world where belligerence, disrespect and sheer hate are both unacceptable and acceptable? That is when Mark began talking about the filters (although he spoke more about lenses), or the lack thereof, being used in people’s words and actions. On previous occasions, Mark had talked about the lack of Christ in much of what we see in today’s world, especially the Church. Now, when he has talked about that before I found myself wanting something more concrete. Something I could hold onto, instead of some heady theoretical concept like the lack of Christ. Now my wants had nothing to do with Mark explaining his ideas about the lack of Christ. It was really about my inability at that time to grasp what exactly he meant. This time, though, during this discussion about words and thoughts and actions, it finally became real and concrete for me and it happened when Mark asked rhetorically, “If we ran our words and our actions through the lens of Christ, would they change?”
That is when this whole idea of the lack of Christ became concrete for me. In that moment in our conference room I was recalling instances where the lens of Christ has been replaced. I could recall things being said that clearly had not been run through the lends of Christ. I could recall actions being taken where it was now clear to me those actions were not run through the lens of Christ.
Something else became real for me too… the psalmist’s words in verse fourteen of today’s Psalm. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Just like Mark’s idea of running our words and actions through the lens of Christ, the Psalmist is praying for his words and thoughts to be acceptable to God. In the larger context of this Psalm, where the Psalmist is recognizing himself within God’s world. Where he is recognizing that what he says and thinks does in fact matter he is reminding himself and us today that we are a small part of God’s big world. And this ending plea to God, is a plea to look beyond oneself to discover God. When choosing our words… when choosing our actions, look beyond ourselves and our own self-acceptance and look for God. When choosing our words and our actions run the possibilities through the lens of Christ. Take the steps to discern what is acceptable to Christ and what is acceptable to God and let that guide you.
`
*******************************
With all of this percolating in my head it seemed fitting that last week ended with my participation in two meetings. One meeting took up the better part of my afternoon and early evening and the other lasted about an hour, but both during and after those meetings I kept wondering what the way we choose to filter our words and our actions. In that first meeting, certain people withheld so much information from certain other people, all in an effort to have their way regardless. Even before the meeting tribes had been assembled, a team had been chosen, and that team left other members of this decision-making group out in the cold. Everything about it felt wrong, except to those who had previously been chosen. What should have felt wrong to everyone involved didn’t. And even worse than that, to those previously chosen to be on “The” Team, any words coming out of the mouths of “the others” was just a reason to attack their humanity. It was awful and it seems nothing could be done to change it.
At the other meeting, the one who called the meeting had clearly spent a lot of time preparing the statements that were read. This person even had research believed to backup or substantiate her position. The problem is that the research provided didn’t pertain to the situation at hand, but there was no way to relay that information. You see, even before that meeting took place the battle lines had been drawn. Drawn so forcefully that any words that might enlighten her position were received as confrontational.
So, as I sat in those separate conference rooms on separate days I couldn’t help but wonder what filter, or what lens, these people had run their words through before choosing to speak them. I couldn’t help wondering what filter, what lens, they had run their actions through before choosing to take them. And I couldn’t help wondering whose acceptance they were seeking.
And after wondering all of that for them, I turned it around to myself and now I give this gift to you. The gift of asking God to find acceptable the words of your mouth and meditations of your heart. It is a real question and deserves your attention.
[PRAYER]
Amen!
