The Bonehead Cometh

   When I say these words tell me what you think of first. Pink Cadillacs...Mary Kay Cosmetics...yes. A pole with 2 snakes wrapped on it...universal symbol of medicine...yes. Three green arrows following each other in a circle...recycling...yes. The Rx symbol...a pharmacy...yes. A yellow smiley face...well, I'm from the 70's so I say it means 'have a happy day', for the rest of you, you might say Wal Mart. Okay, last one, ...skulls...

   Primitive cultures might argue that skulls were symbols of protection and well-being against evil. Cultures of today might say that they are simply a fashion trend. Since our culture likes this saying, 'It is what it is', I'm gonna say 'what it is'. Death. That's right it's a symbol of death. I don't wear skulls for that very reason, why do I want my t-shirt to shout death at everyone who looks at it? Or my beach towel, or my purse, or my jewelry? I'm not about death, so I don't wear death anything. I'm not afraid of death, I just don't find any association with it. Why? Because I've already died. If you're blood bought, then you've died as well. Why do I need to don myself with tribal skull tattoos with smoking guns or bloody knives. What is the purpose for bearing this on my belongings or person? Without a word, what does it say?

   Ever since my granddaughter was about two she has, on her own, called skulls, boneheads. Which I think describes the situation very precisely. It's really more of the concept of us bearing symbols that represent ideas and truths for all to see what you think on the inside. Doves with olive branches in their mouth...peace. The dollar sign...money. The rainbow...it's a promise to my faith which has been stolen by another group that uses it to represent their liberal beliefs and celebrate their diversity. Surely, the effects of the bonehead cometh.

   Maybe it's because I'm such a representative person. I live large and loud with what I believe. I believe in representing. So, if you got your cross on around your neck, please leave it in the car while you buy your liquor. Do what you gotta do, just don't confuse others watching you. On your Facebook page pick one or the other, either post a scripture to your status OR join the group 'If you're talking behind my back you're in a good position to kiss my ___', but not both. Same thing for everyone that wants to know if children can have ice cream trucks then where is the frozen margarita truck for the adults. It's not representing who I thought we Christians were representing. I'm amazed, shocked really, at ones that have their names imprinted in the Lambs Book of Life that will cheer someone on that feels they need a cocktail to cope with life's crappy situations. 

   Have I lost touch with reality? Am I reading way too much into what God said about living holy? Have I taken sanctification way too seriously? Did I misunderstand the part about being an ambassador for Christ? Am I supposed to mix the boneheads with my everyday life? Does it even matter if I do or if I don't?

   Here is a quote from the book 'A More Excellent Way' by Henry W. Wright, "The Church is incredibly ignorant about its enemy." We Christians have an enemy, read John 10:10. Our enemy wants us to flop here, on earth, he wants you to cause others to flop, he doesn't care about after you're gone, just here. He wants to rub it in God's face, see what I've got your kids doing? When we don't represent the kingdom we pursue the bonehead cause.

   Matthew 7:20 says that Jesus said, "...by your fruits you will be known". Fruits are your lifestyle. That's how everyone around us will know who we represent is because of our lifestyle. I understand that we can blow it from time to time. Grace covers your boo boos. But when you deliberately set a time and day to meet with your friends to sip with and toast one another, grace gets put on the spot. One more representative for the God cause has hit the dust and one more onlooker doesn't trust our faith. We Christians are so mocked because of our inability to reject the practice of boneheadism.

   I want to interject here that I am not judging, I'm just describing the obvious effects that bonehead-denseness produces. I'm judging when I grab a gavel and make a decree of punishment because of the obvious fruit spoilage. No, that's not my place. But if I stand up and call 'it is what it is' it's only because I can't be silent when it comes to representing. Jesus would walk straight up to people and addressed their bonehead situation without holding back. Why would He do that? Because it was death to them. It was poison. It was decay. It was rot. He told many that thought they were doing the God thing the right way that they were "white washed tombs full of dead man bones". Tombs + Bones = Death. You get the picture?

   I'm speaking to the Christian culture. We were originally designed to be a counterculture, like the early church, instead of a sub-culture. A sub-culture shifts its convictions and viewpoints about right and wrong, good and evil, acceptable and unacceptable as society's culture shifts. A counterculture does not. It remains fixed and firm with its beliefs even through the changing of the times. The things we Christians will stand back and yawn at, 60 years ago would have caused people to have heart attacks right where they stood. Let me ask you, the things we allow through the airwaves and into our homes through our TV's, would you honestly let the very same thing take place, live, in your living room? The language? The nude-i-ness? The hate? The gore? Would you let someone reenact this in your living room? Live? With your family sitting right there? We've slipped into a bonehead coma!!!

   John Bevere says this in his book 'A Heart Ablaze', "Holiness transcends legalism as rules for dress, or hair, or what to eat. If you are living a holy lifestyle, you will automatically want to do things that bring God glory". So I want to ask you to do this, while you're in the middle of doing an activity, ask yourself, does this represent the God-glory? When you think of a fig leaf, what does it represent? Sin? The reason Adam and Eve covered themselves was because the God-glory had left them. Nothing but sin and bones!

   If I see someone entertaining a bonehead, I quickly maneuver into prayer position in front of my keyboard or car, I don't care, and claim the law of representation to go into effect. I don't have to say anything to anyone. I just pray the Ephesians 1:18 prayer..."the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling...go ahead read to verse 23, it's good!

   Rise and represent you followers of the cause! Remember whose you are. Remember the name of the Christian game, Fruit Bearers. Remember our motto: Death To The Bonehead! Live To Represent! Remember our goal is not to confuse potential Christians with numb-skull choices. Remember to represent, all Jesus, all the time. Choose you this day life or death, blessing or cursing. Choose to represent. It is a LIFE or DEATH situation.
 

Lessons from my Dance Bag

     "Wow, what a mess," I thought as I dug around in my dance bag looking for what I needed. I don't know why I was thinking that, because this wasn't any different from the other times I've had to go clawing through it. My bag's got the usual stuff that dancers have to have in it, obviously shoes, all kind of shoes, very worn shoes, along with Tylenol, bobby pins, needle and thread, band-aids, ribbons, elastic, fray check, screwdriver, wrench, sweat towel, CD's, extra skirts, extra tights, extra shoes ( in case of a blow out), extra stuff, water, power bars, along with some giblet stuff on the bottom.
 
     In my bag are all the things that I might need as I do the dance thing. Now, let me say, I am a minimalist. I know it doesn't sound like it considering everything I carry around, but I am. That's why my bag looks like it does, messy and mangled. Minimalist don't like a bunch of clutter, just the necessities. I've always said that if I was stranded on a desert island all I would need would be my Bible, a knife, and some mascara and I could make it fine. But.......I have all this stuff in my bag. Did I mention that it weighs about a ton or that I can only carry it on my left shoulder? My right shoulder has never allowed me to put any strappy thing over it, it slides right off. I think that my right shoulder isn't as broad as my left.....anyway, because of the left shoulder favoritism I have a 5 degree curve on my spine that pulls to the left from all of those years that I have toted a bag around. I'm also a loyalist, I will hang tough with you and I will also hang onto a thing that I have until it is absolutely undesirable to everyone else. Just like a dance bag, I'll keep one until it just begs to be repaired or retired. 

     So, as I 'm looking at my bag and saying, "wow, what a mess",  I'm thinking that this bag is an expression of me, the contents reveal who I am and what I do. So then I think about how it's the same with my body that totes around my spirit and my soul (my will, my intellect, my emotions) and THAT REALLY can make me say, "wow, what a mess"! What do my contents say about who I really am and what I really do? I hate fake! I require genuineness from others as well as from myself. I'm like a cowboy from the old west, I shoot straight from the hip and lay all my cards out on the table. I guess that's why I can let others see the contents of my imperfect bag while my minimalist self is screaming..."I really don't live like this"!! I live by the philosophy of 'organize now or agonize later'. But yet, my contents are all jumbled.

     As part of my desire to become a better me this year, I want to clean out my bag. Throw away what's unnecessary, mend what's torn and, keep what's useful for my benefit. Unnecessary stuff would be things like, letting go of good ideas and doing God ideas instead, comparing myself among others, and letting perfectly good gifts and talents go to waste. Mending what's torn would require me to fix some breaches (not britches), patch some holey relationships, and repair some broken dreams. Lastly, things that are useful and beneficial would be to remember that, IT IS NOT ABOUT ME, none of it, name it and it isn't about me. With a world filled to capacity with others, I would say because of Him, it is about others. My dance bag is filled with necessary things so I can impact others with its contents and so am I.

 

Just like noses, we all have them ....opinions. These are my O's.