With All Due Respect

By starting with the phrase "With all due respect," it doesn't give me the right to say whatever I want! There is nothing about this in the Geneva Convention, you can look it up! Yes, this is just silly, but I hear similar phrases just before someone "word-pukes" all over me.

Word-puke. We've all experienced it and we've all done it. It's when we speak the truth without running it through the filter of love. Or, it's when we speak about someone else in some way that casts them in bad light. Or, it could be a bold face lie about someone. No matter what kind of puke it is, we still want to clean up afterwards.

In order to feel better about our puke we use softer words to describe it: it wasn't puke, it was just spitup. It wasn't gossip, I was just venting. I didn't mean for you to be hurt, I was just sayin'. Whatever you choose to call it, it's still word-puke.

I understand and embrace the importance of processing with someone, but most of the time that processing is not filtered through the Love Filter. Healthy processing should be done with one person who is wise, mature, and godly. If we choose this person carefully, there is really no reason to process with someone else - unless we're fishing for a particular response!

Pastor Danny Garrido once said, "If we treated gossip like we do adultery, gossip wouldn't be a problem in the church." I would add that adultery is a problem, but gossip and word-puke are bigger problems.

I had the opportunity to sit down with some friends who were wondering where we stood. As we spoke I thought, this is healthy. We're clearing the air about an issue between us without including anyone else. We were able to understand each other and see the misunderstanding clearly. If we had spoken to others prior to the conversation, it could have resulted in a false or negative perception by someone outside the conversation.

Have you ever seen someone cast in bad light? They look pale, sickly, old, or even sinister. Lighting can change our perception of a person. What if we cast everyone in the Light - the Sun of Righteousness? If we viewed people through a lens or filter of grace and love, how much better would situations and people look?

Proverbs 6:16

Integrity & Authenticity

Lately I have heard a great deal of comments about integrity and authenticity. Many people use the words interchangably and insist that they are the same. Some blame power and isolation as the cause of corruption.

Power in and of itself does not corupt, but it reveals the corruption of one's character. Absolute power reveals the depth of one's corruption.

Fear reveals the level of consistency in one's life. If one acts without fear is one who knows that the person they are in private is the same person they are in public. But, just because someone is authentic, does not make them fearless unless they are consistent.

If one consistently admits to a certain set of values and then acts inconsistently with those values in private and publicly - they lack integrity. They also act in fear that their actions will one day demand an account.

Character and action moving in consistency with one another in public and in private without fear equals integrity.

If you were handed a great deal of power, how would it affect the way you acted out? In other words, if you knew there was nobody who could touch you for your actions, how would you live?

A man of integrity with absolute power, I believe, would rap a towel arround his waist and serve those who are willing to be served.