Happy Easter, Use Your Signal

 
“With love for mankind and hatred of sins.” – St. Augustine.


In other words, love the sinner, hate the sin.

It seems black and white, but it covers an area vast and gray as a Midwest winter. Love? Do we love Putin? Michael Vick? The Kardashians? All the Kardashians?

And how do you define a sin, anyway? Some people think it’s a sin to start a sentence with a conjunction. Hopefully they hate my sentences, not me. I think it’s a sin to make a turn without signaling, but I don’t want to blow up those drivers—just their cars.

If it's a sin to use a religious holiday to promote your products, I've got a lot of company.


There are bad people in the world. Call them sinners, or whatever you want. But here’s the thing: Most of the people you and I disagree with are not bad people. We just have different opinions. You may think there’s nothing wrong with making a turn without signaling. I think your car engine should explode and leave you stranded by a dead skunk carcass. Neither of us is bad, even if one of us in wrong. (It’s the stinky guy. He's wrong.)

So, while the issues may be complicated, and the differences may (or may not) be insurmountable, that doesn’t mean we can’t get along. There are more important things than whether that uncaring bum uses his turn signal. At the end of the day, maybe he realized the world’s problems were too big for him to worry about why that guy behind him honked and waved with one finger.

Groot finally took out that SUV that never signaled its turn!


The Bible has some pretty strict definitions of sin, and punishment for sinners. Then Jesus came along and said, “Hey, lighten up—good people do bad things. We should still care for them.” (I’m paraphrasing.) I’d be a poor Christian if I didn’t try to live up to that. Besides, we’re all sinners. You think it’s not a sin that I want to blow up perfectly good cars?

On Easter and every day, let’s try to keep that in mind. Debate, but don’t hate. Hey, I like that … I wonder if it’s been copyrighted? I don’t want to give it up to that guy who can't find the turn signal switch. (Dude, it's on the steering column. Up is right, down is left.)
 

5 comments:

  1. Debating is an enjoyment. My family would become so excited we would pound the table. We did not argue about God's Word, but anything else was fair game. Have a blessed Easter, Oh. Tweeted,

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    1. And Happy Easter to you! I'm not a big fan of debating, but some people are awfully good at it. If it was 1776 I'd be Thomas Jefferson, not John Adams.

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  2. Wonderfully put! "Debate but Don't Hate" will make perfect bumper stickers for your next book signing!!

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