Every one of us wrestles through the realities of a very broken world. Government is sometimes dysfunctional, seemingly beyond repair. Laws can be unjust, penalizing the innocent. Communities discriminate against people because of the color of their skin or their zip code. Chronic pain may be your unwelcome friend, visiting you each day.
This world is not without its troubles.
How does the Christ Follower deal with his own downturns? How do we handle troubles that are not a direct result of our own poor choices?
Hopefully, you've had the opportunity to look over Darren Wilson's grand jury testimony in the case of the State of Missouri versus Darren Wilson. The "versus" part is a complete joke, of course. If you read through the testimony and listen to the statements of prosecutor Bob McCulloch, you'll see that it's more like "Missouri and Darren Wilson versus Michael Brown." Wilson was not put on trial, the dead black teen was, and Brown didn't get to testify.
If Wilson had been brought to trial, his testimony would have been subjected to cross-examination. It's possible that Wilson wouldn't even have taken the stand in his own defense — many criminal defendants do not — because he wouldn't have wanted to face cross-examination.
One of us attended a two-hour creativity workshop in 2011 where the workshop leader spoke about the various stages of creativity. He asked the audience to blurt out words related to their experience when working alone and generating new ideas. They yelled, "excitement," "intrigue," "joy," even "love." Basically, it is pleasurable to conjure up ideas. Next, the workshop leader asked the crowd to identify emotions associated with that next phase of creativity; the part where you share your ideas with the outside world. The crowd hushed and a few timid voices mumbled "fear" and "embarrassment." Thinking about a field of judges evaluating the sweat equity and inspiration that goes into our work feels wrong. What adult has the authority to claim that a kid's crayon drawn meatball-shaped house with watermelon-shaped, purple skinned parents is anything less than creative? If creativity is about originality and usefulness, how can anyone criticize never-before-used rhymes ("I don't like 'em figgity fat, I like 'em stiggity stacked/You wiggity wiggity wack if you ain't got biggity back")? As these MC Hammer lyrics suggest, actually, some ideas are terrible.
The experience in this workshop reflects a broader pattern in life regarding creativity: people tend to fall in love with their ideas. Research suggests that the easier an idea is to think of, the better and more correct it feels. This is why none of us can accurately judge the creative merits of our own ideas. It is for this reason that creativity requires more than one person. Gifted authors still need editors. The best film directors rely on script supervisors to catch mistakes. Nobel Prize-winning scientists still submit their work to the scrutiny of peer review. The problem emerges in families, schools and societies that promote appreciation, compassion, and kindness over candor.
Words matter. God speaks loud and long regarding the power of our words. One prime example, Proverbs 18:21 says, "The tongue can bring both death or life (NLT)."
While there are many expressions of a toxic tongue, comparing ourselves to others leads to words of death. Comparisons can be a carefully laid trap that will lead you down a road of relational ruin. Sinful comparing tends to measure our own worth through the lens of others' lifestyle or accomplishments. Ecclesiastes 4:4 notes, "Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless – like chasing the wind (NLT)."
