Did You Hear the Joke About the…?
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8
It happened at the grocery store, and it was a chance meeting. I walked into an uncomfortable situation. My dear friends were telling some jokes. The focus of these jokes was all over the board. Some were ethnic, some political, some a mix of …. Well, you get the idea.
I did not do very well on my godly report card! Many of the jokes were really funny but I should not have laughed or continued to listen, but I did not have the courage to speak out and say, “Hey, this is not appropriate.” Instead, I stayed to the end. Don’t even pretend you have not been in this situation. I am talking real life here!
There was that moment when I felt that cringe in my gut; it was just before the first punchline. We all giggled like middle-school girls. Have you ever wanted to rewind the clock and just pretend that nothing happened? Well, of course no one can do that, but I certainly wish things turned out differently.
Now I am stuck in the situation of guilt and shame, right? Very wrong! As I drove home that day, I asked God to forgive me for not standing up for Him and listening to the Holy Spirit. I also talked to each one of the other women and asked for their forgiveness.
In that moment between the Holy Spirit cringe and the punchline, my decision-making skills went out the window. We all have those times when we falter, stumble, fall and become red-faced embarrassed and ashamed of ourselves. However, our loving Father hears our cries for forgiveness. We are the ones who hang on to our sins. We agonize over what others will think of us and how we short-changed Him. He does not remember what we even did.
Why do we even get involved in situations like this in the first place? Could it be we need to laugh more? Maybe we want to have some fun. How about we don’t want to spoil our relationships by being a goodie two shoes. On that day, I learned a valuable lesson. I do not like the feelings that came after our short, snort-laugh meeting.
Don’t worry, it was not anyone in our church family!
Father God, thank You for Your patience and forgiveness. Please forgive us when our spiritual knees become wobbly, and we don’t have the strength to stand up tall. Give us more of sensitivity to that Holy Spirit cringe. AMEN.