Hippy Crates

Ahhhhhh!!! A chance to breathe out and relax. Lynne and I got to enjoy a little vacation last week, and it was certainly good to unwind, unplug, and untask. It took me five days before I started sleeping in later than I normally do. We headed to the Lake of the Ozarks and ate our way from north to south.

One gray afternoon, we went for a drive. Along the turns and hills, we passed a scene that I now regret not stopping, backtracking, and getting a picture. Two signs, side-by-side on the same post, pointing in opposite directions. Pointing to the east, a sign for Casa de Loco winery; pointing to the west, a sign for Highway AA. Winery this way, and AA that way. Go too often in one direction, and you're going to need to go the other direction for 12 Steps. (But don't drink and drive.) OK, so it's not that AA, but I still got a chuckle out of it.

But where in real life do we try to hold opposing, contradictory forces side-by-side with no sense of irony, as if they can coexist in our lives peacefully?

The Internet is an obvious example - too obvious. On the same screen, in two windows side-by-side, we can read great advice on keeping our marriages vital and at the same time degrade women to mere objects; we can read healthy Mediterranean diet recipes and track the progress of the pizza we ordered; we can read an online Bible about loving our neighbor and blog about how people who vote the other way are all morons; we can reconnect with old friends and waste hours removed from humanity without even changing URLs! This way to the winery, that way to AA, all on the same signpost.

We can't believe both.

More significantly, we do this in our relationships. We treat the ones we love most in ways we'd never be so rude treating total strangers. We say "I love you" most frequently to the people we most frequently take for granted. We tear down those we have been specifically chosen to build up. We crush those we are to raise, we put away those we are to honor, we serve emotional poison in cups we take turns washing. This way to the winery, that way to AA, all on the same signpost.

James 3:9 says this about the tongue: With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people made in God’s image.

We do this. We admit it. But we can't sustain it. We cannot forever hold eternal opposites in one hand. We will eventually let go of one of them ... or both. Let go now. Check your signposts to see those opposing signs with fresh eyes. It's hard to bless well with a cursing tongue.