On the Billboard

Seen on a billboard:

'Jesus is Lord and you know it!'

My immediate reaction was that the word 'better' was superimposed between you & know, making it read in my mind, 'Jesus is Lord and you better know it!'.

In this permissive society we live in, no one likes to be told what to believe, to say, or to do. And that was part, but only part of the reason for my reaction. I had NO idea who had caused the sign to be written and that was a bigger cause for my discomfort. It is bad enough to have been told what you believed but even worst not to know the credentials or the belief system of whoever did so.

But this also got me thinking of the importance of language; in this case of one little word. Because had the billboard said 'Jesus is Lord and I know it', that would have been completely different. I probably would have thought, "Good for you. You have a conviction and you want to share with others." And herein lies the difference.

One little word, and a world of difference in how I was affected by the billboard! How many times do we use the word 'you' during the day when we really should be using the word 'I'? How many times do we speak of what 'they' are doing, or what 'they should say' or how 'they should act'? Why is it so difficult for us to speak only of that which we take ownership of, rather than presuming to speak for other people. Could it be because it doesn't require either courage or vulnerability to say what others should do or believe. It does require both of these however to say and act on our own acknowledged beliefs.

As it says in James 3:8, ‘… no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison’. The author is acknowledging this very thing, that it is so very easy to say that which will disrupt, convict, or anger another requiring constant vigilance on our part to keep from doing so.

My challenge to you, and to myself, is to see how often we can catch the word ‘you’ coming out of our mouths and replace it with the word ‘I’, thereby taking ownership of what we say for ourselves… I think we will be amazed.

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