Virtual racing is a hoot. Different companies offer different experiences and athletes can pick and choose based on their own goals. My favorite fitutainment group sent me an email recently saying I have completed 9,000 miles with them since I began in August 2018. The badge assigned to this achievement is adorably named Super Star. If I had a normal brain I’m sure this would have triggered a normal ear worm. But my Broadway Blender Brain went with “Stars” from Les Misérables. So I gave the libretto a listen while working on a lap quilt. Said quilt is made of solar system fabric no less. I now also know Ellie the cat does not like an oboe solo. But I digress.
When I was in high school I was big time into Les Mis. It was gloomy and dark in a time when was a macabre little person. There was something about every character I could relate to. Valjean: repeatedly tires to do the right thing. Javert: black and white, no midground. Thenardier: because sometimes the bad guys get away. Eponine: unrequited love. Even Gavroche was relatable! (innocence fighting for a noble cause) Except one: Adult Cosette. She was all day dreamy and mushy and Heart Full of Love. It seemed she was the one fairy tale character in a world of realistic personalities.
And I don’t believe in fairy tales.
Before anyone goes too hard at that last statement, hear me out. Fairy tales are mostly docile damsels in distress waiting to be rescued from whatever less than ideal situation has them trapped. The Hero enters to the rescue and they all live happily ever after. I’m no feminist and I do believe in chivalry. But that’s a lot of pressure to put on a man. God did not make woman from the man’s side so she could lie down on it. We were pulled from his side to stand beside. Family structure would look very differently if we went back to that Bible lesson. The beauty of The Gospel is that it isn’t fairy tales. It is the living, breathing Word of God.
It is truth. That’s why Proverbs 12:6 can still speak so loudly across the centuries. It reads this: “The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright delivers them.” I was on lunch break just casually reading when this verse smacked me. Partly because where I chose to eat involved hearing conversations full of high emotions. Partly because I tire easily of social media anymore.
BlueLetterBible.org here I come. Interlinear concordance? Yes, please. What I discovered is that every word of the English translation in the ESV is pretty well spot on the same from the Hebrew.
- words: dabar – speech, word, speaking
- wicked: rasha – wicked, criminal
- to lie in wait: arab – lie in wait, ambush
- for blood: dam – blood
- but the mouth: peh – mouth
- of the upright: yashar – straight, upright, correct, right
- shall deliver: natsal – to snatch away, deliver, rescue, save, strip, plunder
No confusion on the meaning of all of this because of shoddy translation work. I threw this around with a Pastor friend of mine for a bit. And of course apologized and thanked him for listening to my arm chair theology. Cool friends make the journey easier.
My first thoughts were about social media. There is an epidemic of offence on every platform. Ready made arguments quickly submitted for the benefit of anyone willing to read and like the comment. Retweets with proper indignation added to indicate the level of severity towards the offending party. Like the Proverb says, there are words waiting to spring up. Unlike Jesus, these are not always words of life. (John 6:63) Having a ready made attack is not scriptural. In fact, 1 Peter 3: 15 says we should, “in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.”
Pounding out on a keyboard thinly veiled glee about ‘what could go wrong” so that later a big “I told you so” happens is not gentleness and respect. Christians need to get back on board with honoring Christ the Lord as holy and quit looking for the devil everywhere. The devil prowls like a lion seeking who he may devour according to 1 Peter 5:8. The devil is prepared to ambush. We need to not be. So, how? The second part of the Proverb says the mouth of the upright delivers them. There is a process for that.
Get into the Bible. “I have stored up your word in my heart so I might not sin against you,” is Psalm 119:11. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth,” reads 2 Timothy 2:15. We have to get into a habit of daily study to know how to handle the Word properly. Really read it. Soak it. Process it. I had someone once ask me how I got so much out of just reading a single verse. Just sit on it for awhile! (I’ve been in this particular verse for about two weeks now.) Get a concordance, get an atlas, get an understanding of the cultural references. Don’t take just any preacher at face value but really find out what the Word of God says. And when you find a pastor that teaches this way, pray for that man! He needs it!
According to Luke 6:45 “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” To put it simply, your mouth will follow your heart. If we are to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) we have to actually have love in our hearts first. Not mushy gushy smushy love. The love of God. Only God has love because God is love.
We can’t buy it, binge it, or breed it.
Adult Cosette is fiction but what she represents is real. True love heals. True love binds. True love moves forward. Why? Because all of those are Godly actions. She isn’t scared of a future with Marius because she has known the love of Valjean. And Valjean only knows love because the Bishop showed him the love of God in word and action. The ripple effect of multiplying love isn’t just for musicals, books, and Hallmark movies. It’s a daily decision to be kind to those around us. The true follower of Christ doesn’t hide behind cherry picked ideals to manufacture a crisis for boasting. We can not set up an ambush for the self gratification of falsely praying for the ones we wounded. The body of Christ needs to stop with the self harm. Now.
I like the last word in Proverbs 12:6. Natsal. I want to be snatched away. Not in a The Rapture Of The Church sense, because that topic is a WHOLE other pile of worms. I want to come to my Father in prayer and worship and know He pulled me to Him. I want to know that in the Spirit, I have been hugged in tight to my Father’s chest. The creator of everything is ok with my nothing. All the stars in the universe can not outshine the glory of the Lord. I don’t need to be a super star; I need to be Tammy. He gave me a task of loving His people out of the ambush of the enemy. There’s no Hero riding in to save the day. Jesus saved us on the cross. The only thing we did to contribute was cause the sin that put Him there. Jesus could have asked God to snatch Him away but He didn’t. God was glorified.
As simplistic as fairy tales are, the Gospel is so much more so. In our legalism we have made it harder. In our Gnosticism we have made it spooky. In our weakness we have made it unattainable. In our humanity we have made it about us. The lost are worshipping the stars of creation instead of the Creator. The false teachers are trying to earn gold stars on a sacrosanct chart God never designed. The Bible isn’t Stars and Fairy Tales. It is the living, breathing Word of God. It is life and life more abundantly. It is relevant. It commands respect. It is correction, and wisdom, and authority. And it is the love letter from God most high to His children. So that we will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”
That’s eternally better than, “And they all lived happily ever after.”
picture credit: National Geographic
Musings In The MidWest 
All I can think to say is A-men!
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