Faith Venture

Paul said it. James emphasized it. Our tongues can create all manner of troubles–both for us and for others.

YouTube is great, isn’t it? Just like once you had to have access to the limited number of publishers to have your writing published, once you had to have access to the limited number of TV networks or movie companies to get your video published.

Now we have publishing platforms such as WordPress (where this blog is published) or SquareSpace (where my business blog is published) and photo sites such as Flickr where you can see my photos under “Garytheeditor”. Now YouTube is the new TV. And it can get you international attention in an instant.

I’ve been listening to a discussion in another area about Americans’ sense of entitlement. Not just recipients of U.S. government “entitlement programs” (which is probably most of us if you really analyze it), but an attitude that many have that they are entitled to things. We’re entitled to getting stuff. We’re entitled to voice our opinion even if we don’t think about what we say before we say it.

It’s a little like the driver I saw yesterday as I was driving on the freeway. She was entering the freeway along the entrance ramp. What’s the purpose of the entrance ramp? It’s to allow you time to match the speed of traffic and fit in. What was she doing? She set her speed and just expected others to get out of her way. The 18-wheeler couldn’t and didn’t. She wound up stopping (fortunately this was rural interstate so there was space off the travel lanes).

Just so, even we as Christians often feel entitled to just spout out any half-formed opinions and others can just get out of our way. But we can put them on YouTube. They can hurt people. Our words have reach far beyond our close circle.

Freedom requires responsibility. Responsibility is maturity. We’re not entitled to much of anything. God’s grace is for us even though we don’t deserve it. A little humility and gratitude in our attitude helps get us over that feeling of entitlement. It’ll help us avoid the dangers Paul and James warned us about.

This entry was posted on September 17, 2012 at 7:19 am and is filed under Ethics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.