Avoid Your Vomit

Sorry about the title. But it will (if you haven't figured it out already) make sense.

As I've stated in the past, you never know where a blogable idea will come from.
In that case it was Proverbs 12:6 and X Men 3 (you can read that here).
Today it's Proverbs 26:11—no movie.

Proverbs 26:11 Like a dog that returns to it's vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.

Now I've read that verse before and never thought much about it. However, this time I read it and thought "Ohhhh! Wait a minute. That's talking about me".

Before I give my line of thinking, here is an oft used quote attributed to at least three different people (mostly Albert Einstein) and a Chinese proverb.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".

So, I read the verse and thought of the quote and kind of put the two together and started thinking of "different results" that I would like to see in my life. How I've done the same thing over and over (returning to my vomit) and of course got the same results.

In my last post (New Years Eve) I talked about things that I want to do more or less of this year, and I now see this as kind of a continuation of that thought process. Stated simply, if I want to see different results, I will need to do more or less of certain things as they pertain to that result. A simple example would be: if I want a healthier diet, I need to eat less sugared cereal and more vegetables. A fool returns to his Sugar Puffs. (which by the way I have not had a bowl of sugared cereal this year)

Identifying The Vomit–

I started trying to think of things that people foolishly return to and as a result don't get different results—aka the vomit in their lives.

–Not following through or finishing what was started. (my biggie)
–Getting caught up in the day to day and not getting the big things done. (again me)
–Bad eating habits. (of course if your not after different results then don't worry
about it)
–Not exercising. (ditto)
–Going to bed later than I should to get up when my alarm goes off. (oops, did write
that in first person?)
–Wanting a better, more loving relationship with your wife (spouse) and keep
treating her the same way as always.
–Not do anything about the great ideas you have. (I'm looking to make big strides on
this one)

You get the idea. I'm sure there's a lot more that could be said in relationship to this and maybe I'll write on it more in the future. Who knows, maybe I'll come up with enough for a book. . .

I can see it now, a whole rack full right as you come in the doors of Barnes and Noble and on the cover of each of those books, in big bold print, Avoid Your Vomit - how to keep from regurgitating the messes in your life.

Bloody Words, The Video

You never know where a blog idea may come from. For instance this one came about from reading a verse in Proverbs, the same week I watched X Men III, The Final Conflict. Bloody Words, The Video, to the best of my knowledge does not exist. Rather it is my concept for the video, that this entry is more or less about.

We'll start with the verse in Proverbs and this will all start to make more sense as I go along.

Proverbs 12:6 The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, But the mouth of the upright will deliver them. NAS

It was the first part—the words of the wicked lie in wait for blood—that caught my attention. It got me thinking about the whole idea of how words can be used as weapons. Think of some of the terms used to describe the use of words: low blow, cut like a knife, that really stung, and I'm sure plenty more that I'm simply blanking on right now. The point is, they are all associated with the idea of physical pain or violence. In James 3:8 it refers to the tongue as a restless evil and full of deadly poison.

Which brings us to the X Men influence and the idea for the video, which gives a visual that I hope might be helpful. In the movie, Jean Gray's mutant power allowed her to do essentially anything with her mind, which included inflicting wound after wound on Wolverine, who, with his mutant power of self repair, promptly healed himself of each wound until he was able to save the world (a very simplified description of the scene). So it was this visual image, recently burned into my brain, accompanied with the verse in Proverbs, that brought me to Bloody Words, The Video.

The video would start with a little girl standing in front of the camera, when a male voice (intended to be her father) starts yelling at her "your stupid" "I can't believe you did that" things of that sort and through the use of special effects, a physical wound (most likely something along the lines of being cut with a knife) is inflicted on the girl with each thing that is yelled—bloody words. It's not something that would be easy to watch even without the wounds, but with them, it would be that much harder and therefore, as I see it, that much more effective in driving home the idea of just how wounding words can be. Other scenes could be: a husband yelling at his wife, a wife making cutting remarks to her husband, a boss to his employee, kids picking on another kid, people gossiping about someone, all with the same result of physical wounds being inflicted. Less blatant and yet potentially just as damaging things like sarcasm or the very self centered, I-care-more-about-me-than-you, parental phrase "you know what you do reflects on me" should also be included.

Then follow all that up with people (I think it should be the same voices as did the wounding) saying loving positive things and with each thing said, a wound heals. But the mouth of the upright will deliver them.

James 3:10 puts it like this: from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.

With words we have the power to wound and to heal. It's our choice. How easy it is to go on wounding when the scars are inside and we don't immediately see the damage. Imagine if when we started in on one of our kids, with the first wrong thing said, we saw a cut appear on their cheek and blood started flowing down their face . . . would we continue? I don't think so. I think it would stop us dead in our tracks and bring us to our knees in tear filled repentance.

Bloody Words: a strong visual image that just might help us think twice before we wound again.

Additional Thoughts

I posted this blog last night and after listening to a Living On the Edge podcast this morning, I wanted to add some additional thoughts.

The title of the broadcast was How to Overcome Hypocrisy in Your Heart - Part 1* and while there where a number of things that tied into the theme of the blog, what stood out for me was Luke 6:45.

The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. NIV

If we have blood dripping from our mouths on a regular basis, we need to ask ourselves "where are those bloody words coming from, where is my heart at?" Maybe we need to be praying "Lord my mouth is speaking blood, I need Spirit filling, help me to be yielded to the Spirit so the fruit that overflows from my heart is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self control, and not bloody words".


PS To both of my loyal blog readers that I know about, and any others that might be out there, you may have noticed this is my second post in one month. . . don't get used to it.