Skip to main content

What I Want To Hear

Can you please just tell me what I want to hear? Puh-lease?!? I’ve already given at least 5 seconds of thought to this. Clearly I know what I’m doing. So when I ask for your opinion, you are supposed to understand that ‘your opinion’ is code for ‘just sign off on this.’

I do this mostly with my wife, Jennifer. After being married for almost 15 years, I figured she understood the code. (I say ‘almost 15’ even though we just celebrated 14 a month and a half ago. I think 15 sounds more impressive.) Despite our many years together, she doesn’t understand the code. She insists on giving me her true thoughts, much like Brainy Smurf reminding the other Smurfs of what Papa Smurf always said.

But, much like the other Smurfs, I do what I want. This inevitably leads to any number of conversations that end with Jennifer saying, ‘I told you so.’ Supposedly she doesn’t find great thrill in that. I’m not so sure. Predictably she’ll remind me of when I originally asked for her opinion. Geesh! Some women clearly don’t understand communication.

This reminds me of the boys in Jeremiah 42. I already discussed Jeremiah 42 here. Without retelling the entire story, let’s just say that the boys, some army guys go up to Jeremiah to ask for prayer. They want God’s opinion on their next move.

Jeremiah doesn’t understand the code anymore than Jennifer does. He actually gets God’s opinion. It turns out that God knows what the army guys want to do and He wants them to do something different. In fact, God goes so far as to describe in detail what bad things will happen if they carry out their plan.

They do what they want anyway.

Does this sound like any child, teen or adult you've ever worked with? Why? What do people say to deceive themselves? It seems to me that people can hear about consequences but answer with the following.

~That person must be jealous of my great idea.
Never mind that we respect them enough to seek their approval. Never mind that they may actually make a good point. Somehow, someway, they are jealous.

~It can't happen to me.
I think it was when I had my first child that the possibilities of every harmful or dangerous thing in this world first entered my mind. I’d thought of death, but that was clearly reserved for people that weren’t me. Storm warnings? No, this storm will die before it comes near my home. Car accident? Nope, I know how to drive.

Warnings are clearly a waste of your breath because of my imperviousness to any harm. What? I’m not impervious? Oh.

~It'll be different when I do this.

Yes, I know that 10 guys just jumped off a diving board into a pool with no water. Yes, I can see they all have broken arms and legs. Yes, I am still going to jump. Why? Because I will land differently.

~Maybe God is kidding.
Ok, maybe they don't say this. But the people of Judah were clearly not taking God's words seriously.

Do you?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Accountable

I recently officiated a wedding. The ceremony was simple, lovely, and ended with another couple professing to keep the covenant of marriage. But it all started with a clarification...from me. At our first premarital counseling session, as I have done with every couple I have agreed to marry, I clarified a couple of matters. First, I officiate Christian weddings, where both spouses-to-be are professing Christians. I firmly believe that marriage is difficult enough, without adding disagreements about God into the mix. Second, as a minister of Jesus Christ, I believe the pastor’s role in a wedding is to represent the blessing of God on that union. So we have several sessions of premarital counseling where we discuss married life. It’s not that I have this imaginary card in my head, with a picture of me on the front and my stats on the back. (You know, like a baseball card.) Ok, I do picture cards. Pastor cards! And being a competitive guy, I want my stats to look good. The number of coupl

Patience

I am more than halfway through the last year of dropping one of my children off at school. It's my eighth grade daughter, for anyone keeping track of my family.  See, next year she will be at the high school, and her brother will drive her. He says that it's not cool for seniors to drive their freshman sister to school, but I bet it's cooler than being dropped off by your mom in a minivan.  So rather than groan about this daily responsibility, I've been reminiscing about what the drop-off line used to look like, way back in elementary school. Once our children were about halfway through their elementary years, the drop-off line became a test of patience.  Do you know which group you do not want to get caught behind in the parent drop-off line at an elementary school? The kindergartners. These little ones are barely able to walk, but now we put them in the high-pressure situation of trying to unbuckle their seat-belt, grab their backpack (which might be as tall as they a

Jury Duty

I was recently summoned to jury duty. I know, groan. Except I didn't. I had never experienced it before and was curious to see what it was like.   When the day to report arrives, they separate you into groups, asking various questions to decide if you will be selected to serve. Do you know the accused? Do you have conflicts that would keep you from serving? Can you stay focused?  I wanted to answer well, if only because my kids kept wishing me luck the day before, telling me they hoped I made the team. After all, who wants to be rejected? It occurred to me that there are things you probably shouldn’t say right away if you’re wanting to serve on a jury. I know, I know, people don’t typically want to serve on a jury. But that list didn’t seem nearly as humorous to me. Here are the things you probably shouldn’t say if you want to be selected for jury. I hold myself in contempt. You can’t handle the truth. We find the defendant guilty. I believe the judge looks pretty in his robe. I’d