Long Way to Go

     I wore my Jesus shirt to town.  That way even when I'm agitated, I can't be mean ;)  ...like when I watched a lady open the door for another as she walked on through without even acknowledging it - pet peeve # 14.  I got to thinkin', "Do we Christians really have to wear a Jesus shirt to stand out?"  By that I mean, "Can people tell we're Christians when they meet us?"  Okay, maybe not recognized immediately; no, I don't want to be the backwards, goofy kind nor the matronly, unpretty kind been there, done that.  But when the gossip, the dirty jokes, and the questionable lyrics begin; the one drink too many is had; and the touching crosses boundaries, do we make a stand?  Because if not, we gotta know we're in over our heads.   It matters who we "hang out" with (another "I should know" story); actually the world would be a better place without any "hanging out".  If people are gonna get together, they ought to have something constructive to do.
    So, like the song says:  people only know what we're against, not what we're for.  If a person is on the edge of conviction and about to fall but meets one of us who is complaining, in debt up to our eyeballs, careless with our health and hygiene, crass or flirtacious, secretive, or so worried we go to sleep on valium and cope with Xanax; what in the world do they see to hope for?   Why don't we care?
     We disregard the authority of our husbands.   We're mainstreamed to a system that  teaches our children APART from God everything that HE created for them, hoping they'll have good jobs one day, as we lose sight of what kind of spouse or parent they'll make in that day.  We turn to bottles and daycare, when, in years past, they were a last resort.  We don't spank because we're more worried about philosophy and public opinion than we are about a God ordained sense of justice ...and physics, for that matter.  "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." James 4:17.  That doesn't leave much wiggle room.
     Are we really surprised when people we know question The Faith?  How are we different?  If we have the behaviour covered, do we have the humility covered?  Do we have the unconditional love covered?  I, for one, don't.  I've woken with a forboding feeling every morning for the last few days, knowing that God has a long way to go with me.  "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this;  Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."  Galatians 5:17.  Oh my ...yeah, a long way to go.