Tiny Devotional for Monday, 10-18-2021

A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, join me in thanking Pastor John Hutchins for his encouragement. 

Help! I'm being repressed!

A fool’s lips bring strife, 
And his mouth invites beatings.
Proverbs 18:6, NASB 

Anybody can mis-speak. Mama said: your tongue gets tangled around your eyeteeth, and you can’t see what you’re saying. It HAPPENS. 

Usually, a wrong statement is ignored; sometimes, it requires a clarification. I’ve never seen a case where a single wrong statement resulted in a punch, unless there was pre-existing malice (as in, someone was spoiling for a fight). While there is a specific case of what the legal system refers to as “fighting words,” in which a spoken word has the moral equivalent of a blow, under normal circumstances, with normal people, the only thing that words invite is: more words. We call that conversation, dialogue, communication. 

 But then, we come to the fool, bless his/her heart. All too often, they miss (many) excellent opportunities to SHUT UP!  If you want to see this in action, check out this three-minute clip of The Constitutional Peasant. 

Here is an essential aspect of that scene: 

It’s the peasant who is in control of the situation from the beginning. 

Yes, he is a fool, and has ZERO power, compared to King Arthur. However, it’s his agenda that gets implemented, and his agenda is to provoke a beating at the hands of the king. 

WHY?

Because then he has evidence that his beliefs are true; that there is violence inherent in the system; that he is being repressed; AND he has an audience.

Does some of the chatter on social media make more sense now? 

Peace be on your household.

Comments

  1. Bess BlackstoneOctober 24, 2021 at 9:11 AM

    Too many people act like a watery tart threw a sword at them. Repression runs rampant, and hopefully we can act a fool enough to get the message across that some agendas need to be left unsigned.

    ReplyDelete

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