S05E012, Say What?!? Andy B 2 Minute Video
Do you ever have those moments when you’re listening to someone who is in the middle of saying something, and it is as if somebody just slapped the back of your hear. Because what they just said was absolutely not what you were expecting.
Perhaps it is the name for something you associated differently. Perhaps it is an opinion that seems diametrically opposed to other things they’re saying. Perhaps it is simply because they quoted something totally out of context.
I’ve had many of those over the years. Growing up with someone who is severely narcistic and you get used to things like that. That is quite normal, for someone like that.
However, it doesn’t help the person listening.
As we speak to others we need, of course, to be careful when we quote things. We’re gonna make mistakes. That happens. Of course it does. But sometimes it’s a bit more serious.
So, don’t be afraid to ask for some clarification, even challenging as necessary.
And let’s do all we can do, as my wife frequently reminds us, to “Say what you mean and mean what you say”.
Ambiguity is something I’ve observed used lots by some folks in church. It creates wriggle room for something they want to do, which they know won’t be popular – or righteous. So, they speak in such a way that enables them to do something other than what they intimated.
Jesus was never ambiguous – which should be enough for us really, so I’ll stop here!
Just a thought...
Andy B
Download
Transcript
0:07
So, another Andy B 2 Minute Video, and I've called this one Say What?!?
0:11
I don't know if you've ever had this conversation and it could be about anything. It could be about brick walls. It could be about curtains. It could be about the weather. But you're having this conversation, and someone's speaking to you about something, and you have this Say What?!? moment. They say some't and in your head, it's like, someone slapped the back of your head. It's like Say What?!?
0:29
All of a sudden, they've said something that just doesn't fit with everything else. I don't know if you've had those conversations. I've had quite a few with various folks over the years where you just think, what are you talking about?
0:43
Now, recently, I had a conversation with someone and they quoted a piece of scripture is a verse from the Bible. And I had that Say What?!? moment because when they said it, I thought, that doesn't fit what I think you think it fits. So I looked it up in the Bible. Excuse me. I looked up in Scripture. And I was right, it absolutely doesn't say what they think, or hope, it might have said. And we have that don't we? We can, we can have these bits of Scripture and we can chuck them about, and we think they mean something but context is king!
1:14
Now in this context, it wasn't just the verse, it was actually the first half of a sentence. And the rest of the sentence really didn't fit what they were trying to say. And we can't just cherry pick a bit of Scripture, and find seven words in a row that say what we want, "Ah, God said it". Because we need to be much more wise than that. We need to use our minds, we need to use a little bit of rationality. But the best thing we need to do is keep it in context. What is the chapter before and after? What is the verse before and after? What is the rest of the sentence saying?
1:44
Maybe you have those Say What?!? moments. Well, I didn't know that scripture at all. I knew scriptures around it. It wasn't one I'd ever heard of really, or identify. It's not until I googled it, looked it up and thought, 'Oh, that's the Scripture'. So how did I have that Say What?!? moment if I didn't really know it? And it's really simple. It's because I'm rooted in the word.
2:03
I don't need to know every single word of Scripture, to have a really good grasp of God's way, to have a good grasp of whether it is in scripture or not, because of the power of the Holy Spirit.
2:15
When you're going through your life, let's not give people those 'what' moments those Say What?!? moments. Let's try to be clear about what we're saying. But let's have a really good knowledge of what it is we're saying, not to confuse people.
2:25
Just a thought