Good morning and happy Saturday. We are two weeks into the new year. I hope you have chosen a Bible reading plan and are doing your best to keep up. The importance of spending daily time in the Word cannot be overstated. As the psalmist declared, “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.” Allow God’s Word to guide you throughout each day and keep you on the right path this year.
The other day I was listening to a podcast of one of my favorite preachers. It was a good message, and I was being encouraged by what he was teaching. But when it came time to pray, he did what many of us have done. In a deeply spiritual moment, he mixed up his words. What he meant to say was, “Lord, we gaze upon your beauty.” However, what came out was, “Lord, we gaze upon your booty.” Since he is more spiritual than me, he simply corrected it and went on. I, on the other hand, needing to grow in maturity, thought it was hilarious. That could be because I have done the same thing. Whether preaching, teaching, praying or just trying to talk, I have often said the wrong word or somehow forgotten how to pronounce a familiar word. Shortly after the youth group at LBC changed their named to Revolution, I was preaching on a Wednesday evening. The message happened to be from the book of Revelations. However, when I asked the people to open their Bibles, I told them to turn to the book of Revolution. Then, throughout the message, I keep saying in my head, “Don’t say Revolution.” However, it didn’t work. Over and over, I referred to passages from Revolution instead of Revelation. Pastor Steve and I had a lot of fun serving together. Whenever one of us would mess up like that the other would be sure to get a good laugh. Fortunately, I gave him plenty of material to work with. A long time ago, I went to a conference at a mega church in Chicago. One of the pastors there made a gaffe while quoting Scripture in a message. What he meant to say was, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Unfortunately, what came out of his mouth was, “Let everything that has breasts praise the Lord.” Even though that statement is valid, the others on the platform lost it. There was no recovery on this one. They couldn’t let it pass by as a simple slip of the tongue.
These types of things don’t just occur with the speakers. Singers will occasionally mix up words as well. It also happens with emails, texts and posts on social media. Never forget, spellcheck isn’t always on your side. A couple of months ago, just before I sent the Ramblings out, there was a word that was not spelled correctly, and it would have been incredibly embarrassing for all of us. Fortunately, it was spotted before the Send button was clicked. That reminds me of a friend that sent me a text using the talk-to-text feature on his phone. Unfortunately, he didn’t proofread it before it was sent. When I received it, I noticed that it contained a very vulgar word. As you can imagine, he was quite embarrassed by it, but I thought it was funny since I knew what he had done. This wasn’t nearly as bad, but I used that same feature to send a text to a friend. However, it changed her name so that the text began, “Hello Pretty.” Fortunately, she thought it was funny and that I was just being complimentary.
Anyways, there is a good chance that some time this year, you just might say the wrong thing, get your words mixed up, or have spellcheck work against you. Just know, it’s ok. It happens to all of us. None of us are perfect. Those that think they are just don’t have an accurate assessment of themselves. Maybe some good advice for 2023 is simply to lighten up a little and not stress about being perfect. At some point, we will all say the wrong word, mispronounce something, type a word incorrectly, spill our coffee, drop our phone, misplace our keys, stub our toe, trip and fall down, and a host of other things that remind us we are all human. And when it happens, laugh a little. Enjoy the journey as we stumble and bumble our way through this thing called life.
31 For who is God besides the Lord? And who is a rock? Only our God.
32 God—he clothes me with strength and makes my way perfect. (Psalm 18)
From our neighborhoods to the nations,
Pastor Larry
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