Professional Regurgitators VS Christians Who Think

"Dawn! You've got to see what Pastor David sent me in this video clip!"
With the excitememnt in his voice, I thought it must be something special...how wrong could I have been!!??!!My beloved pulled me up a chair right next to him to watch a video clip called The Professional Regurgitator. Now whatever went through his mind that thought I might be interested in this still escapes me, but anything for my beloved!It was really gross. Or did the "professional regurgitator" title give that away?So side by side Brad and I watched (he was amused, I was disgusted) as this man swallowed the most awful things (balloons, a billiard ball, a nail, a gold fish!) and then regurgitated them back up. Did I mention that it was really gross?But somewhere in the middle of it all, as is typical of me, I started looking for a life lesson in this. It was just a matter of time before I told Brad, "That will preach!" Suddenly his look of amusement turned to a look of concern...it was in that brief moment he looked as if he really considered the possibility that I may have found some spiritually significant thought from watching the professional regurgitator...and the truth was, I HAD!

In the midst of our recent health battles we have really heard some hum-dingers of twisted theology...from the surreal to the sublime...to the just plain stupid. All from well meaning people, who in my opinion, had somewhere along the way swallowed whole some bad theology, bad teaching, bad doctrine. Apparantly Christians with health issues are prime pickings for these well meaning people to regurgitate their bad theology. For instance, we have been told by fellow believers that the reason we are sick is that we have secret sin in our lives. Still another person said that if I was praying for a miracle that I was merely seeking after a sign and wonder and not finding contentment with what I have.

Now don't get me wrong, I am content in the midst of this trial that God's grace is sufficient for me. I am firmly convinced the Word of God is true so I fully believe in the prayer of faith spoken of in the book of James. I do not see that trusting in the Word is the same as chasing after a sign and a wonder...as far as signs and wonders go I don't really need them to belive! I believe already! I know that God can heal so I ask for healing. I dont really see that as "chasing" after a sign and wonder. I am His child. I have an inheritance in Christ that is freely given. I dont have to chase and fenagle God to throw me a bone...He is my provider, my healer, my Abba. He is sufficient. His timing is perfect...and may it all be to the glory of God!

So as I looked upon this grotesque clip of the professional regurgitator it was a sad reminder that so often good Christian people will just swallow whole the teaching before them without ever measuring the message against the whole counsel of God's word. So when the pressure is on they simply regurgitate the message they previously heard, never having the roots or the foundation to be grounded in the Word of God...and just like watching the regurgitator, what they bring to the table is really gross, undigestable, and was never intended to be ingested...a message like that was always meant to be....ummm, REJECTED!

Now in stark contrast to the professional regurgitator, today I saw a biography on the life of Thurgood Marshall. I found this one particular part of his life story to be especially fascinating! As a young black child in a segregated school in the early 1900's the odds were stacked against him. When he got in trouble at school his teacher punished him by sending him to the basement of the school with a copy of the Constitution of the United States. He was made to memorize parts of the constitution every time he got in trouble. He was not allowed back into the classroom until he could recite by memory the part of the constitution that he had been assigned. In order to memorize, one must meditate and internalize the words. They must understand and dissect the words in order to commit them to memory. This is a process of THINKING and making APPLICATION.

Thurgood Marshall did not just repeat what his teacher had told him. She made him "own" the knowledge for himself and be prepared to defend the fact that he had studied and shown himself approved to have passed the test of reciting it by memory.

Is it any suprise that Thurgood Marshall went on in life to become one of the greatest Constitutional lawyers concerning civil rights in our country? He is probably most well known for the case he brought before the Supreme Court called Brown Vs The Board of Education. This brought about the desegregation of the public schools in America. Not only did he practice constitutional law, he went on to be assigned as a Justice to the Supreme Court of the United States of America. As an inter-racially married woman, I just want to say thank you to an unnamed public school teacher in the life of Thurgood Marshall who took the opportunity to discipline a young boy in mischief. Your form of "discipline" was more true to the definition of the word "discipline" that any random punishment could have been. You actually discipled him, by making him memorize and internalize the very document that the set the course for the rest of his life.

As Christians we can learn a lot from that brief look into the life of Thurgood Marshall. How much more pleasing it would be if we took the Word, meditated on it's truth, and let the Word of God transform us, rather than just regurgitate the opinion of some teacher somewhere without ever meditating, dissecting and internalizing the Word for ourselves.

A brilliant singer and songwriter, Rich Mullins once said of the Word of God, "I did not make it, no...it is making me. It is the very truth of God and not the invention of any man."

It is my prayer that I will forever be a work "under construction" by the Word of God.
I have no desire to be a professional regurgitator!

Blessings,
Dawn