(11 Characteristics to Test Yourself With)
I don’t cuss.
There’s no judgment there, as I hang around many different circles of friends and am never offended by those who do. But I made a personal decision decades ago to not make it a regular part of my vocabulary.
Those close to me are typically shocked if they hear me utter an occasional curse word; but they also recognize it was deliberate – either to make it clear I’m serious THIS time or to throw them off for fun.
Who was I to be the judge of people’s a**holery?
Thus, it surprised me several years ago when I had a series of vivid dreams where I drove people to repentance by calling them “a**holes.” And, yes, I would use the full word (if you want to fill in the asterisks). In one dream, I called a guy an a**hole and a demon came out of him.
Of course, all of us have those dreams where we wake up thinking, “that was weird,” and then move on in life. But these dreams seemed meaningful. I couldn’t shake the feeling there was a deeper message.
But what did they mean? Was I being called by God to start an actual ministry of telling people they were “a**holes?”
Looking at the world around me, there was certainly no lack of qualified customers. Religious people and fellow Christians were no exception.
But who was I to be the judge of people’s a**holery? After all, I could think of plenty of times from my own life where I fit the bill. And how does one go about calling other people “a**holes” without becoming one in the process?
Furthermore, what exactly qualifies someone as an a**hole in the first place? Certainly, there were many out there I would give the label to who simply saw themselves as doing what is right. Was there some official “line” that separates the a**hole from the good? There’s an entire subreddit titled “Am I the A**hole” (AITA) in which people try to figure out if they have crossed that line. Opinions are often varied.
But are human beings who often act as a**holes and subject to their own biases really a good measure of the bad vs. good? It is my belief that our current culture wars (in politics, on social media, etc.) are a search for that mysterious line, with many self-assuredly proclaiming they are the official arbiters of it.
But who gets to be the final judge? Not me, for sure. If this was to be a ministry, I needed to know what God thinks? What standard does the Foundational Being that created, designed and operates the whole universe use to measure people? Continue reading
