Yesterday my wife, sons, and I went to the College World Series here in Omaha. The weather, venue and game was great. However, as is too often the case, I got my ears wounded by theological cussing (on t-shirts or signs). I have a couple of bad examples.
The first was a church sign, and it went like this:
“My number one goal in life is to be on the Devil’s most wanted list.”
What in the world does this mean? My wife, who often tends to cut less slack than me, attempted to try to unscramble this omelet, but I was unsatisfied. There are about 2 billion other things you could say before this.
The second was a T-shirt worn by a man at the game. We were in line to go in and he was leaving from the previous game so I could not go up to him (otherwise I would have).
His shirt read, “God is crazy about you.”
I don’t know about you but to portray God like some ditzy teenage girl, snapping his gum and scribbling my name on a piece of scrap paper does not seem biblical. God is gracious, loving, merciful and just; he is not enchanted by my apparent value or worth; he is certainly not overcome by ‘crazy love’ (insert prom music here).
And I have to add one more from my trip to the South. In front of a major Southern Baptist Church in Memphis that most folks would know if I mentioned it, was a very large billboard reading:
“God loves you just the way you are.”
Gulp. Well someone should have told Jesus about this because he became a man and died for…sinful rebels! If we are so good then we have a cosmic miscalculation.
No doubt the intention of the people making such public statements is good, but irregardless, the message is not helping the bottom line. I tried to console myself as I drank the free water with the gospel on it but then noticed that it was a remarkably edited message and that I should be more thankful for the folks’ service of providing physical water than grumbling about not providing living water.
We serve a precise God who has revealed himself with precision in his word; the least we could do is try to be clear with the message. All of this chatter does not help clear things up.