Mixed Message
Mixed messages can be in the eye of the beholder.
Real examples of signs from “Signspotting: Absurd and Amusing Signs from Around the World” (Doug Lansky, Lonely Planet, Oakland, CA, 2005).
- From Los Angeles, CA - Antique tables made daily!
- From Racine, WI - Happy Easter / We rent handguns
- From Mitchell, SD - Save Haven Small Animal Hospital / Hunters Welcome!
- From Mill Valley, CA - a sign reading “Evacuation Route” with an arrow pointing straight ahead, but on the same post a “Not a Through Street” sign
Talk about mixed messages! What, in the form of two contradictory messages, are we to believe? Take your pick, I guess. Have you also experienced the same when it comes to Christians?
First, when it comes to others noticing that the behavior of Christians doesn’t jive with what we believe. When we don’t practice what we preach? We preach about gentleness but lose it when a car pulls out in front of us. We preach about commitment in marriage but flirt with a coworker calling it innocent fun. We preach about trust in God but then whine to our friends about the stress of all our worries. We preach kindness to others but then in the presence of others criticize those closest to us so that we look good.
Mixed messages. No wonder people who aren’t interested in church aren’t interested in church.
Secondly, have you experienced mixed messages from God? He says he’ll take care of us if we put our lives in his hands but, well, it’s not that we’re complaining or anything, but people who don’t want anything to do with God sure seem like they’re making it better than we are. Makes you wonder if it’s really worth the trouble of being a religious person.
There is, of course, a perception issue here. Mixed messages can be in the eye of the beholder. The expectation that Christians will live perfectly sin-free lives is a faulty perception. The assumption that the ungodly are being rewarded by God for the sin-full living is a faulty perception. So the answer to mixed messages must lie not within our personal perception or interpretation, but outside of it. In unarguable truth. God’s own word.
John the Baptist knew this well and, as a faithful messenger of God, realigned these mixed messages for the crowds coming out to him.
God’s answer to the faulty perception of a society that expects holier living from Christians is that we ought to shape up. Rather than faulting society for expecting too much, God faults Christians for offering too little. It’s time to repent and sin no more. To Christians eager to make ourselves look good John says, “Don’t accuse people falsely,” and to Christians striving to boost our income to cover a lifestyle that exceeds our paycheck John says, “Be content with your pay” (Luke 3:14).
God’s answer to the faulty perception that he isn’t fair to those who follow him because he dispenses all the goodies to the ungodly finds its answer also in John. He has handpicked by God for special assignment from heaven, a deity’s VIP, and yet his wardrobe contained no Armani suits decorated with bling and no expense accounts to eat at the finest restaurants in the city. Camel’s hair. Locusts. The simple life. Yet Jesus said of him, “Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11).
These mixed messages find their solution in the words of God given to a special messenger named John. Words explained and expanded for us in the rest of the Bible. This Advent season, watch out for mixed messages. Don’t send them to others. Don’t see them in God. Rather, determine your value according to the promises of God’s forgiveness and care, and live up to the expectation of society for Christians to stand out as well behaved by gaining wisdom and strength from Jesus himself.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, since you have made me your messenger I ask for your help to communicate you as accurately as possible to other people. May they see in me your kindness and love, and a trust that does not depend on my understanding. Also, may I see in you not a fickle or disinterested God who rewards the wicked but instead may I look to you with faith that lets you decide what is good and who gets the glory. Amen.