Every time you turn around anymore, someone somewhere is being “offended” over something. I put that in quotations because I think we have lost sight of what is truly offensive in this world anymore. It seems that you cannot even express a difference of opinion with someone without someone taking offense at the fact that your opinion is different than theirs. And i am honestly sick of it. I am tired of feeling like I have to “walk on egg shells” because someone might not like what I have to say. It sickens me that I start to write something on here, and talk myself out of it because I might “offend” someone.
Don’t get me wrong, I want nothing to do with purposely going out of my way to write something offensive. But I am tired of feeling like I cannot have an opinion on something because if I differ with someone then they might get their feelings hurt. Since when did everyone have to agree with you for you to like them?
If you know my mother-in-law at all, then you know one thing. She is one of the strongest Christians I know, and tries to live that life as well as she can. I have never heard a “cuss” word out of her mouth, and rarely hear anything negative come out of her mouth at all. I bring all of this up because the other day she shared a photo on social media of a pun. There are a few of us that like to share puns between us. It is just something that we get a laugh out of and a way to stay connected during our busy lives.
What she did not realize at the time was that the group that originally shared that particular photo had the acronym “lmaof” in it. I will not spell it out here, but if you are not familiar with that acronym, some of the letters stand for cuss words. She did not see it before she posted it, I did not see that after she posted it. That is until she commented on the photo apologizing if she offended anyone. I saw that comment and started asking what was offensive, because it was just a clever little pun that did no harm. She pointed out the acronym and said that someone else pointed it out to her.
In other words, because of a little acronym that she obviously had not typed or posted herself, someone else was offended by it and pointed it out. Like I said earlier, if you know my mother-in-law at all, you know that she was not the one that posted the acronym. She shared the photo because of the pun, and that was it. But because someone was offended by it, she felt the need to apologize about posting a funny photo.
Guess what Christ followers. We live in a world that does not know Jesus, and because of that we cannot expect the world to live by our morals. There is going to be things going on around us that we do not always agree with. People are going to use language we do not like. People are going to drink, listen to music we do not like, watch things we do not agree with; and that is ok.
Stick with me for a minute here. Yes, we are called to try to live righteously, and that is something that we should strive for. But the way we do that is through a relationship with Jesus. If someone does not have that relationship with Him, or is very new in that relationship with Him, then they are not going to have everything in their life cleaned up. Guess what? I have been a Christian for over half of my life at this point, and I still do not have everything in my life the way it should be. This is a daily struggle, and a decision we have to make daily to trust Jesus and let Him clean us up.
If we, who are trying to follow Jesus and be Christ followers, do not have it all together yet, how can we expect the world around us to live it out.
Here is what I am getting at. Instead of being offended by the foul mouth neighbor who seems to cuss every other word, why not get to know them. Build a relationship with them. Learn to love them because Jesus loves them. Then, once you have a relationship with them, maybe, just maybe, you can introduce them to the one that has changed your life and taken away your sin. I am not saying that we have to agree with and condone bad behavior, whatever it might be, but if we are truly living our mission out on this earth of introducing others to Jesus, then getting offended every time we turn around and see something that we do not agree with cannot be the best way to share Jesus with someone. Let us all get on and stay on a Life on Mission.
Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak
Thoughts from a Crosseyed Jesus Freak 