"Well, I Would Never Do That..."

Six little words I try never to say: "Well, *I* would never do that!"

Probably I'd uttered those words 200 times before God called me on it. Way back in 1993, Tom got a new job here in our present state, so for 10 weeks, Naomi and I remained back in Nevada while Tom searched for a house here for us to buy. He mailed us a video tape which he took after walking through this house (our house now) with a realtor and when I saw the huge collection of junk in the attic, I said, "I would never let my attic look like that!"

Huh. Two years and tons of yard sale and curb finds later, our attic looked nearly identical to the junk-shop-gone-bad way it had when the previous owners lived here.

Ouch. 

Unknowingly, I'd become a liar. I'd displayed pride when I spoke those "I would never do that," words in the first place. Pride believes, "Other people may mess up, but I would never mess up as badly as they did." 

For a few more years, I still blithely went around shooting my mouth off in similar fashion. "I would never go online." "I would never hang-up on a tele-marketer while he's still reciting his spiel." "I'd never all-out yell at Naomi. I would never..." well, you get the idea.

Then came the years when I finally let God change me, instead of me trying to change God's mind. God begin to address areas of my life where I was blowing it and eventually, this "I would never do that" area came up. Firmly, He pointed out the extreme pride in such statements--and the ignorance, also.

He'd ask me, "How do you know how you would act in new-to-you situations? What makes you so certain you'd not act as others have, given the same opportunity or hard times? And why do you feel so comfortable tisk-tisking people whose backgrounds you don't know and do not understand? And whatever happened to, 'There, but for the grace of God, go I?'"

(Trust me, anyone who says God never lectures people, well, they've probably got a few lectures coming.)

Anyway, now if I even think about saying those six words, there comes upon me such a strong conviction to, well, shut-up. After which, I'm reminded to seek to understand rather than to judge. 

And to remember the many things I thought I'd never do--and will probably do some more.

God can be pretty strict sometimes. Personally, I'm glad He is.



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