WYSIWYG

Don’t sweat if you don’t get those letters. Back in the “old” days when the web was getting started, doing a web page was a real pain in the neck. You had to understand html and that meant writing the codes for everything. Every font, color, formating had it’s own code. When you tried to read what you wrote it was so full of code it was hard to make sense of it. Then there were the “WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET” programs. You just typed things as you wished and the program put in the “hidden” code. My blogspot is like that. I see the underlines, photos, colors, etc. as I type. It’s great. So those programs are abbreviated with the first letter of that phrase, thus WYSIWYG. Clever, eh?

Over the past couple of days, I have been thinking that abbreviation would be a great description of our spiritual life, except with a slight twist. Same letters, just different words. WHAT YOU SAY IS WHAT YOU’VE GOT (INSIDE). Since I am always struggling with the issue of “tongue control” , when I read Luke 6:45 – “ Out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks” , I was stopped dead in my tracks. I mean, most of the time I can put on a veneer of “christianity” and play nice, but when things get hard, or irritating then what’s inside comes out!

I read a “ Webzine”  the other day (if you are interested the address is: http://www.boundless.org) and the article on anger hit home. It’s called “Anger: the Image of Satan” , where he deals with the problem of sinful anger that transforms us into the image of Satan. It really hit home when he talked about anger expressed as complaining,  grumpiness, cutting remarks and ranting. Oops! I remembered my loud complaining in the grocery store about how slow the line moved. I remembered my muttering under my breath about the guy who cut us off in traffic. I remember WAY too many things. I was convicted. The author, Jonathan Dodson, attributed that to idolatry. Yip. I just plain love good ole me. I want things to go my way, on my time schedule. Yes, I am a control freak. When I grumble about how hot it is, I am, in fact saying, that I want to be comfortable and that God doesn’t know what He is doing as he controls the weather. I don’t really want God to be sovereign, but I want to the boss of the world. And that makes me into the image of Satan who fell from heaven for that very same reason.

That is a very tough lesson. But true. What comes out of my mouth, reveals what’s really in my heart. It’s not a pretty site, nor is it pretty listening. I have repented, I am repenting of my murmurs, grumbling and general negative attitudes and asking God to deal with my idolatry of ME!

I am even going to try the complaint-free challenge. Have you heard of it? It’s one the site http://www.acomplaintfreeworld.org. The idea is to stay complaint-free for 21 days. They have a bracelet you wear on either wrist. When you catch yourself complaining, gossiping or criticizing, you move the bracelet to the other arm and begin again. I don’t have the bracelet, but I figure a rubber band will do the job. Wanna join me????