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Thursday, July 23, 2015

Choosing to walk the talk




I should be cleaning my kitchen...at least clearing the counter so I can make dinner tonight.

I should be doing laundry, watering plants, preparing for tomorrow.

I should be chipping away at whatever it takes to keep things rolling here during a busy VBS week.

But I can't...not right this minute.

I have to write this blog.

Some call it the "Muse".

I call it the Spirit.

And when he calls, I have learned to Stop. Look. Listen.

Like a train racing down the track, my mind is headed for a destination that will only unfold as I write.

But I do know this...

It's going to be a one-way trip and there will be no turning back.


My heart-to-heart friends have been very patient with me lately...but then again, that's what heart-to-heart friends are for!

I've spent a lot of time ruminating in front of them about two words that have weighed heavy on my heart.

Like a slow dripping faucet...

Try as I might...

I cannot shut them out...


Hypocrisy...

The practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform.

Hypocrite...

One who practices hypocrisy
.

Example?

I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't tell you I practice hypocrisy!

But I don't want to be a hypocrite...in any area of my life.

Instead I desire to live out my beliefs and values in all the choices and decisions I make.

A noble calling, but a difficult task.

Because hiding is easy...

Being silent is easy...

Not rocking the proverbial boat is easy.

But God has been making it very clear that none of these things are options for me any more.

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless.
 Not to speak is to speak. 
 Not to act is to act." Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Most truths are easy to accommodate...

And live by.

Example?

Defy gravity and it's going to hurt.


It's easy to conform your life to something like that!

But what about when believing something requires something?

Costs something?

Then there are two choices...

Either cast away the belief and be free of the burdens it entails...

Or, embrace it and live out whatever that belief requires.

And that's exactly what I've been thinking about.

What do I believe?

And if what I believe is true, will I make the choices it requires to live out my life in light of it?

Example?

I have been horrendously grieved lately to learn of the sale of aborted fetal parts through Planned Parenthood.

I believe in the sanctity of human life...

I cannot in any way condone it or support this abomination.




So, if what I say is what I believe, I now need to "walk the talk"...

Or be a hypocrite.

What does this mean for me?

Well, I have learned which companies directly fund Planned Parenthood.

My financial support of these companies ultimately supports Planned Parenthood.

Sounds logical.

But this is where the rubber hits the road....now I am forced to make a choice.

Stop supporting these companies...

Or shrug and take refuge in some of our culture's well-accepted responses:

"What can one person do?"

"If we knew where all the money we spent went, we wouldn't be able to buy anything."

Put my fingers in my ears and repeat, "La-la-la, I can't hear you, conscience!"



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Ignorance is not bliss.

Because once the truth is known, there is accountability to that truth...

Whether it involves a concentration camp or an abortion clinic.

In the days to come, I believe that those of us who are called by His Name

Will be forced to decide what we believe...

And whether or not we will back it up with our words and our actions.

I do not know what that looks like for you.

Only you can answer that question.

But I do know this...

He has put us here for such a time as this...

To be His hands...His feet...His mouth.

It is both a privilege and a burden...

One we dare not shirk.

For His sake...

For the sake of those He loves and died for but who are still walking in darkness...

For the sake of the unborn. The elderly. The handicapped.

I pray we will be faithful to choose to "walk the talk".


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