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Take Me Literally

I am quite certain that my children have learned it from me. Whether I should be proud or not is a discussion for another day, but when my children choose sarcasm over a straight answer, I can’t get mad at them. They’ve seen it modeled and they are learning the trade. Because, to me, the only thing funnier than imagining what kids will say in response to outlandish statements is actually finding out. There’s only one way to find out.

Luke: How long until Mommy comes home?
Me: One week.
Luke: But…? How…? Why?
Me: She’ll be home in 5 minutes.

Jacie: Can I have earrings?
Me: Sure, anything for my little princess.
(But Jacie is catching on to how sarcasm works.)
Jacie: Really?
Me: No.

It goes both ways. When I ask Jacie how much homework she has, she may respond with ‘5 billion pages’ or a blank look as if she’s never heard the word before. And as I think about this, I realize that at times the Bible uses language that we’re not meant to take literally. Consider Hebrews 10:24.

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

Can you picture this? If we took the Bible literally here, we’d have a lot more cowboys in Church. Plus, we’d have a whole lot of people with spur marks on their body.

Spurs hurt. That’s why we don’t just use them right away. Actually, we don’t use them on people. But maybe we should. We’re told to consider how to spur one another on. Let’s face it, sometimes we need to be jolted in order to get something done.

Love and good deeds don’t just happen. They have to be acted out. And they should be acted out by us. We should be loving and doing good deeds. This doesn’t make it about us. Rather we do good deeds to point others to God so that they can draw near and we can watch as God repeats the process of cleansing others so they can hold on and spur others on. So take some time and consider how a little pain now may cause some good later. It may hurt now, but pain produces action.
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