Shameful Sheep?

The other week, when I was in a local WalMart, I saw a person wearing a t-shirt with a very foul message. The language was sexual and disgusting. They were exiting the store as I was entering, but I was hoping that they had been asked to leave. I doubt it.

I was so stunned at the vulgarity that I actually did a double-take, then turned around to stare at this person while they walked off across the parking lot. You know how people are these days. You can get punched out (or worse) for staring at someone. A few other people who noticed this person seemed to share my reaction. One lady just shook her head, as if to say, "What in the world?"

Exactly.

The way my brain works, I get stuck on things, so I couldn't stop thinking about the incident. I am still thinking about it, and this is what I come up with. This can be filed under "Rants & Wonders":

• Why is it that doing something indecent is easier than doing something decent?
• Why is it that, when I got "grown", I found it so easy to curse and act ignorant around friends but, when I got saved, I found (and find) it so hard to talk about Jesus?
• Why is it that so many people find it easier to talk to each other about their intimacy between couples than to talk about their faith? Or to even talk with their mate about the relationship.
• Why is it that even the most intelligent, well-read and educated people can't find a way to express anger and frustration without using foul language?
• Even talented people - writers and lyricists, who pride themselves on being creative - fall back on the most basic and crudest forms of expression.
• We can talk about how beautiful and complex love is, but we won't attempt to express it in beautiful and complex ways. 
• Why is it that people will spend hours, days, lifetimes, on pursuing a theory that changes the way we think about math or science or space, but we won't devote time to finding better ways to communicate with each other with the spoken word?

Like I said, this comes back to me in a lot of ways. I'm not just tossing stones at other people. I use to brag - even in recent years - about cursing being almost my second language. I used to think it was "cute" to learn and use the latest foul saying and witticisms. How silly is that?

The thing I am least proud of (out of my many flaws) is that, like a lot of professing Christians, I would curse and swear without feeling much of  a blush. If you wanted to render me speechless or shy, all you had to do was put me in a position to talk to an atheist about God.

As a Christian, I have been accused (gently, sweetly, but still) by some non-believing acquaintances of being "a follower". Can't think for myself, they say; I'm just another "sheep".

I'll accept that I'm a "sheep" when it comes to following my Shepherd but, like anyone - regardless of their beliefs - I don't appreciate being called a mindless "follower". I don't think that anyone want's to be labeled that way.

But...

Aren't we all being mindless followers when we mindlessly speak and act the way some other people do? And I say "mindless" because we don't really put any thought into what we do when we pick up the habit of cursing and swearing like it's the thing to do.

Some of us will look sideways at people who wear their pants slung too low, or someone with lots of tattoos, or the person who is jumping on every fashion trend that comes along. We'll look and judge and make comments about "that kind of person." But that kind of person is just doing what we all do: finding non-original ways to express themselves.

Nothing is new under the sun. It's all been done. There are no new colors, just re-mixes. When any of us do something, we are not being "new", we are just re-mixing. The only thing that separates what we do is whether we choose to do something positive or something negative. We are all followers of some kind.

When we get pulled into gossipy conversations about someone else, do we stop to wonder if we should be minding our own business?

When we find it so easy to talk about our sexual relationships with just about any one of our acquaintances (or even strangers), do we stop to consider things like dignity and privacy?

See what I mean? We've turned shame upside down. It's no longer okay to be discreet and private with, well, private matters. That's called being "repressed". If someone doesn't like being sexually free, they are considered "prude", possibly "gay", or "boring".

The person who wore that vulgar t-shirt out for all the world to see obviously felt some way about that choice. Maybe they just don't care what anyone thinks. That seems to be an admired way to feel these days. Maybe they thought they were being funny or daring. Maybe wearing that kind of t-shirt is the only way they can get the attention they want.

Maybe - and, in my opinion, this is the most disturbing possibility - it just wasn't a big deal to them. Perhaps they didn't even think anyone could or should be offended.

Now that I have thought about this, I need to work on my language - in my speech and in my online presence. I went to the Bible and read this from James and I had one of those "can't unsee it" moments:

SOURCE

Can't. Unsee. It.

Peace
--Free