Out of the same mouth...

"Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing; my brothers, this should not be..."

I've been pondering the concept of cursing a lot lately. It seems to have become a lot more socially acceptable and liberally used than I ever really remember. Culture defines language- the meaning of words, what words are acceptable, etc. Following that line of thought, I suppose it's possible that the forbidden four-letter words perhaps aren't quite as terrible as they once were.

I suppose my biggest concern with language, as with many questionable things, is how it looks to non-Christians. I guess I feel in many ways that it's another one of those Romans 14 issues; it's not necessarily wrong, BUT.

We need to be conscious of how the things we do and say affect others. Are we really in the world and not of the world? Do we look different? Are our words overshadowing Christ within us?

I

Love and Basketball

Ok, so I watched this movie tonight for the first time. I really enjoyed it, as I do most any sappy love story or any sappy sports story. This just happened to combine the two. I'm by no means a movie connoisseur, so I can't say much concerning the cinematographic quality of the movie; judge that for yourselves.

Anyway, there were a few quotes within the movie that stood out to me. This one takes place after Monica, the female lead (played by Sanaa McCoy Lathan), makes her first breakthrough at the college level. She expresses her surprise at the coach making her the starter, since she feels as if the coach has been constantly ragging on her, constantly yelling at her. The coach responds in this way:

"You think I'd go hoarse for a player with no potential? When I ignore you... then you worry."

I think that's kinda how God feels.

We have potential. Why else would he have sent Jesus to die?

We have potential.

I have potential.

Sometimes that's hard for me to see. I can be just a little bit cynical (and a lot sarcastic, if you know me) and that cynicism usually is turned inward. I often get so lost in comparing myself to other people, which is kinda like grading a Scantron test against the wrong answer key; no matter the amount of effort you put in, you're gonna a see a few accurate results by happenstance and a bunch of inaccurate, worthless crap that doesn't represent true ability. Okay, this is starting to ramble...

"When I ignore you, then you worry..."

I have to often watch myself concerning this too.

I've let myself get really wrapped up in stuff and put my relationship with God a bit on the back burner. It's there, I'm kinda conscious of it, but I'm not paying much attention to it and it's begun to boil dry. (I blame the stupid analogies to the fact that I'm for some reason still awake at 2 in the morning.) But with that, it's easy for me to feel that God is ignoring me during those times when it seems things are going contrary to my desires.

I have potential.