Souvenir Row

Souvenir Row

"The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life."
Romans 6:23

The one-block area where we got off the tour bus contains Ford Theatre where President Lincoln was assassinated, the Peterson House where he was brought immediately after, and a host of shops packed with every possible souvenir to commemorate a visit to Washington, D.C.

For me it was off to the nearest McDonalds a block away for a soft drink. When I stepped up to the counter, my response to the customary "What can I get for you?" was a "can I have a large pop please?". The look on the waitresses face was a combination of "what is this guy talking about" and "I wonder how long he's been in the country". I quickly changed it to "can I have a large soda", a language she understood, damage done, communication accomplished and I received my plastic cup.

We have the phrase "to call a spade a spade" meaning to speak honestly and clearly about a subject or situation, to describe something as it really is. The English have a more blunt and forceful version saying "to call a spade a bloody shovel". But the point is the same, we need to call things as they are and not sugar coat them for the benefit of how we might appear to others or even to ourselves.

Billy Sunday, the baseball player turned evangelist in the early 20th century in America, termed it this way, "one reason sin flourishes is that it is treated like a cream puff instead of a rattlesnake". I was in a conversation recently and was trying to graciously refer to something the person had done when they corrected me, saying "pastor that was nothing more than sin". Like the waitress in DC, I was taken back by their honesty and by their choice of words heard less and less lately. But it is only in being honest with ourselves and in calling things as they really are that we have any hope of change.

Our choice of words is not always as trivial as soda or pop. And while speaking positively certainly applies in many situations as our words declare our faith in God, calling things as they really are, calling sin sin, has tremendous advantages too. It brings us face to face with what separates us from the Lord and from His favor on our lives. That honesty with ourselves clears the way for change, for cleansing and for restoration to His presence.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church