A Miss Teen USA contestant was asked during the recent contest why she felt only 1/5 of today's students knew where anything was on a map (I'm summarizing a little bit I think...). "Well, I think we need to be in and out of Iraq and Africa and that...umm God and Sin?" (I'm summarizing a little on the answer too) A host of mockers and flame-throwers and gawkers erupted out of the woodwork to torment this young, beautiful lady. Now, she may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer...I sort of want to ask her if she knows where Africa is and where Iraq is...but that's not my point. We've all opened ourselves up on the grand stage of life and pulled a big foobar in front of God, Family and Freaky Frinelli.
Pastor Jim once said that the Christian Church is one of the places that is willing to shoot its wounded. In fact, we don't stand out in that category at all. The church doesn't often set an example for the world in that category. For example, We take a benevolent offering but then God forbid we know how it's used...as long as we know someone is giving somewhere. How many of us (including myself) have seen a bum on the side of a road looking for money and said "No way, he'll just use it for booze anyway"? When Jesus asked us to give generously, to heal, to dress, to enable, was Jesus excluding the bum on the side of the road?
But, now the girl. She deserves a little ribbing...crimeny, I lick up ketchup off the Campbell Supply floor and live to tell about it and that torment will haunt me for the rest of my days! However, a Christian friend called her an idiot, a stupid blond and a doorknob and bashed the entire pageant process. I'm not a pageant fan either, but I don't think this girl is a stupid idiot. In fact, try to hit the stage where there are many millions of eyes there dancing all over you and see how you perform.
We don't always know what we should do or how we should do it. For instance, maybe I write some impersonal things on this blog so that I don't have to talk about my personal life? Maybe I should talk about my personal life? Maybe I write my blogs in such an interesting way that no one cares about my personal life? I'm only using me as an example, but the point is that we don't have it all together. My hands sometimes grab onto an glass only to let it drop and shatter over the floor...it happens sometimes. But the rest of my body pitches in to help. My eyes view the mess, my brain helps me decide what to do, my hands work to retrieve tools and pick up the mess, my back helps me bend, my legs keep me steady (well, in my case only sort of), and my neck swivels so that I can find the garbage can. Do you see what I'm saying? The body is an amazing thing, and when it stops working, you die. It is the same with the body of Christ. Are we going to shoot the wounded or help them pick up their mess? My wife has helped me pick up some messes. My Church has helped me pick up some messes. I can see that a lot of Christ's body work together just as my brain and my legs and my back and my arms work together...and yet...this girl really screwed up.
I'll say it again (for effect of course), this girl really screwed up. The answer was fricken funny and sounded fricken dumb and a lot of people, including my Christian friend, used a bit of their day to ridicule her and say things they didn't know to be true. But now, I'm going to decide to help her clean up her mess. I'm not close in proximity to her nor do I know her, but one thing I can do is write a blog in support of the wounded, in support of her. That's not a big part of the process, but I can help her clean up the mess.
I can help you too if you need me. Is the body of Christ willing to say this day in and day out?
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