Words DO hurt you....

There is this false saying that is very popular among grade schoolers that goes something like this: "sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me."

You are probably wondering why I am even mentioning this, and that is a fair question. I was looking at my friend Joe's blog this morning, and he had a video that got me to thinking about some things.

If you watched the video, it is a powerful story about how an African American man defeated the entire Ku Klux Klan with his mind. I thought Joe's title to this blog was great "Defeating Hate, with the Head and Heart not Fists."

This title (and video) got me to thinking of other ways in which we dispense hate towards others. For example, the term "that's gay" has for some reason become a popular way to say something is dumb, funny, stupid, bad, etc. People (and unfortunately a lot of Christians) us this phrase so flippantly without any thought of people that might actually be struggling with homosexuality. They don't understand that when they use this term around people that are struggling with it (most of the time it is an internal struggle precisely because of the use of this phrase) it alienates them even more, and causes them to bury the struggle even deeper.

We as Christians should not engage in such talk as this. And as a side note, there are other things in our speeches that I do not think would please Jesus (i.e. a lot of racial jokes about our new president) Jesus came as a way to reconcile the world with God and to one another. The church and Christians should be leading the way when it comes to reconcilliation.

Now a lot of people that I talk to will say that accepting a homosexual means accepting their lifestyle and I would completely disagree. The gospels are full of stories where Jesus accepted people but not their lifestyle. Yet the people who were living this lifestyle that was antithetical to the gospel were strangely attracted to Jesus.

If we are honest with ourselves, that isn't the case with Church these days. The church should be a place where people can tell of their struggles freely, and where we can all walk together supporting one another in brotherly (and sisterly) love. Yet sadly, this isn't the case.

I really believe one reason for this is the way we alienate people with our speech. I know that the video was about racism, and that is still pervasive in our day. But it got me to thinking about how we alienate people with phrases such as "that's gay."

The church has lost its relevance because we fail to see the world with the eyes of Jesus. We must start caring for the world again as Jesus did, and that needs to start with actions. And actions start with words. May our words no longer be divisive, may we only speak words of healing and reconcilliation and grace to all that hear us.