ENan and I are pretty good at entertaining ourselves, especially while shopping. We love to wander through gift shops, with absolutely no intention of buying anything, just to see what is new. We can spend hours laughing at humorous tea-towels and have almost been thrown out of Hallmark stores for disruptive laughter at some of the greeting cards.
While browsing at a store last week, ENan pointed out a bag with a scripture quote stenciled on the side, “Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” (Proverbs 31:30) “That’s nice!” I said. “Don’t you think that’s funny?” ENan replied. “Why is that funny?” “The quote is on a make-up bag!”
I am not sure if it is so much humorous as it is sad when Christians proclaim one thing, then act in ways directly opposite. Like the other day when I witnessed an irate driver cursing and making hand-gestures toward another car who had cut in front of him. The irate driver had a Christian logo on his car’s bumper. Or the scene on a television show where a protester was using his sign to beat a person on the sidewalk. His sign read, “Make peace – not war.”
Jesus used the word hypocrite to describe people who are inconsistent in their lifestyle. “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, hypocrites; as it is written, ‘These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.’” (Mark 7:6) Jesus recognized the disconnect between what the religious leaders were saying and what they were doing. They were not being true to themselves or to what they professed.
When the different facets of our lives don’t line up, we feel “off-balance” or “not myself.” We are not being true to our identity in Christ. But when our lives are consistent with what we say, what we do, what we feel, what we think and what we believe, that is called integrity. We are whole. The Hebrew word “Shalom” means both wholeness and peace. When our lives are whole, we find peace.
Shalom!
-Dr. Jim Baldwin
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