Super, And Not So Much

I'm not really a football fan.  I enjoy watching a game from time to time, but I don't invest enough energy to deserve that "Fan" title.  Even as a casual observer, though, I think I'm entitled to say, "Last night's Super Bowl wasn't."  I can imagine prayers going up from the NFL head office.  "Lord, a blackout would be nice."

Even if you have a really big bottle, and you try really hard, you can't put lightning in it.  If it happens to be there, be honest enough to admit it's not my fault.

In our day we are arrogant enough to think that just because we say something is great, or wonderful, or "Super" that it is.  If you are of that persuasion, replay last night's game.

We live in a time in which cat litter is described, on the package, as "extreme,"  many fast food joints no longer even have "small" drinks, and "Good" just isn't good enough.  If "all the children are above average" how do we describe those who really are average, or those who truly do excel, for that matter?

I find myself in a bind here.  My primary purpose in using language is to communicate, not correct.  I can step up to the counter and unload a tirade to the high school kid taking my order, about how all I really want issmall drink, or I can just bite my tongue, go along, and order a "medium," knowing it is the smallest thing they sell.  I will know, but keep quiet about the fact that medium can't be medium if it doesn't have something on each side that makes it medium. 

The real problem is not with ordering drinks.  The real problem has to do with the fact that calling something that is small by a bigger name doesn't make it bigger; it makes the things that truly are big seem small.  In a world where everything is the greatest nothing seems great.

We live in a world where, if we are going to be understood, we have to communicate in "Grande"s, "Colossal"s, and "better-than"s.  Folk actually think that something can be "more perfect" than the merely "perfect."  They're "absolutely sure" about that.  They know their conclusion is "more right" than any other.  If I need to use that over the top language to make a kid who did something worthy of praise feel good about her accomplishment, then I'll sprinkle superlatives like a salt-a-holic seasoning a tomato.  When I'm able, though, I'll do what I'm lamely doing right now-remind myself, and you, that just calling it "the greatest" doesn't make it so.

I have an important motive.  In the Bible I meet One Who is superlative in every sense.  I want to make sure that I reserve the best for Him.

  

It's STTA.  

It's Not About Me:

Those born in the 70s, 80s, and 90s are sometimes called the "Me Generation."  The demographic takes in my sons, their spouses, and a lot of my friends.  I think labeling them with a title that glorifies egoism is unfair.  I don't say that because young adults don't spend more time in front of a mirror than they should or more money on #1 than is appropriate, but because the issue is not one isolated to their generation.  It is part of the human condition.

This brings me to another one-liner:  recently wrote about the brief summaries that I try to come up with for my Junior High Sunday School class.  In that STTA I mentioned a one-word-er, "Hold!"

I thought I'd explore this a bit.  Here is another.

"God is not an idiot."  (I use that word not to refer to one who is unable to think clearly, but who doesn't, or even chooses to not, act in a clear thinking manner.) It's not about me.

 In the Garden of Eden the serpent offered Eve a way to "be like God."  In essence Satan said, God is holding out on you.  (Another one liner.)  To put it in modern parlance, Eve said, "I'm going to have it my way."  "I deserve it."  and she took the fruit.  

At the other end of Scripture there is a group that rises in rebellion against the King of kings.  Like those envisioned in

Psalm 2 they say, "Let us . . . free ourselves from slavery to God."  

Every generation left to itself is the Me Generation.  God is calling us to be counter-cultural.   It's not about me.  All of creation is to bring glory to God.  (See Psalm 150 for example.)   It's not about me.  It is about Him. 

What am I doing today that will bring praise to my great God?

 It's STTA.