Listened To

I have previously written about the fact that I don't publish this blog because I would feel so much more pressure to edit it and make it way better and funny and all that, and that's certainly true.

But I also don't publish it because I feel very convicted that there is a real accountability that comes with readership. Right now, people don't really know about it, so I can say what I want without much hedging or explaining and if I realize later that I was totally wrong, no harm, no fowl - no explaining to anyone.

I don't have much to say about this, except that I think it is a very real thing. If we claim to speak and teach the truths of God, then we are MUCH more accountable to what we say, because now instead of rambling, we are actually leading someone.

See James 3:1-2

I have a tendency to shoot my mouth off sometimes with the first comment I have, and God has reminded me recently that people who set themselves up as leaders simply cannot do this. The girls of our new youth group at Crossroads said recently that I was "so smart" and, much more dangerously, that "everything I say is right." Well, I could go on and on about how that's wrong and if they think that, then it's their problem for putting too much faith in the words of other people and not using enough discernment in deciding what to believe and all of that (which I think is actually true), but in a situation like this, that's pretty much moot. Whether or not they need to examine their own hearts about just drinking up the words of anyone without wisdom and scrutiny doesn't really matter very much. Whether they should listen to me blindly or not isn't terribly relevant because THEY DO listen to me like that. And they are young, and I am older, and so you know who the responsibility falls on? ME. Absolutely me.

And if I just dismissed those comments and kept saying whatever I want with the attitude that they are the ones accountable for what they believe, etc etc etc, you know who is outside of God's will? Me, not them.

Ruth trusted Naomi like this.

"But Ruth replied, 'Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.' When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her."

Should Ruth has exercised some more caution in how blindly she followed someone other than God? Well, maybe. But the accountability and responsibility was then on Naomi!

Again, I don't have much more to say other than that we need to be very aware of just who is listening and just how seriously and how blindly they take our example and if that is present, God has made US accountable to the health of those little ones (even if those little ones are 50 years old or whatever else).