What Did You Just Say?

I am regularly amazed at our... Wait... MY propensity to point out how the strong man has fallen, the successful have blown it, and how I could do it so much better; while ignoring or overlooking the most glaring shortcomings, mistakes, failures and, yes, even SIN in my own life...

"Boy, it's lonely being so stinking perfect..."

All the while, Jesus, the God/Man I / "we" choose to follow was pretty straight forward on all this...

Jesus: "Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging..." —Matthew 7:1 MSG

BOOM! Jesus knows how to throw a punch, doesn't He? I mean...

Come on, Jesus! You're messing with 50% of my conversational life! Can't you ease up a little?

Jesus: "Every one of these CARELESS WORDS is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of Reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously. Words can be your salvation. Words can also be your damnation." —Matthew 12:36-37 MSG

What did you just say, Jesus?

Words? Reckoning? Judgment? Damnation? Holy cow! You must take my conversational life SERIOUS, Jesus! I think I'll just shut up, because MY BIG MOUTH isn't making things any better. In fact, it's just digging this hole deeper!

Geez? Why are you so hung up on my clever little rants on Facebook, my snappy tweets on Twitter, those really cool memes on Instagram, and my never-ending banter at the office?

Oh, yeah... That's right... I remember what your half-brother wrote...

James (Half-Brother of Jesus): "With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he MADE IN HIS IMAGE. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! My friends, this can't go on..." —James 3:9-10 MSG

What? You didn't just go there did you, Jesus? So, when I go off on people, I'm not just going off on some person, I'm actually going off on a person MADE IN GOD'S IMAGE! Wow! People who matter to YOU, and I guess...they ought to matter to me.

Whoa! I never thought of it like that, Jesus. So, you really do take my posts, tweets, Instagram pics, water cooler convos seriously, huh? And, the point? So should I...

After all, I've got so much in my own life that is so beneath what YOU deserve that I really don't have much time or energy to post recommendations, criticisms and snappy little put-downs to celebrities, athletes, superstars and whoever...

Crap. And all I wanted to do was have some fun... And, then, you had to go get all "Jesus" on me... But that's what you do... That's who you are...

Thank you, Jesus! Thank you for loving me enough to remind me of whose I am, who I am and who every person out there in the blogosphere is... I / "we" needed that...

POST SCRIPT: For those who miss the point... Close friends should care enough to hold one another lovingly accountable, to call out "sin" and to challenge one another to live to our greatest potential. Accountability and constructive criticism is meant to be exercised in the context of RELATIONSHIPS and LOVE.

So, if you don't genuinely, sacrificially, truly LOVE SOMEONE - you may want to think twice before you speak, criticize or offer a recommendation. In fact, you may want to think about not even speaking, sharing or posting until the LOVE OF GOD has so saturated your heart that when you speak you are speaking GOD'S HEART, not yours... Just a thought...

Now, what did you think about... Just kidding!