Sayings and Stuff

Beware dear reader my funny side is in a storage locker right now and my grumpy, introspective, foreboding, sack cloth and ashes side, is hung out today for all who wish to see it, endure it more likely. Quick, swing right past here, don’t even glance down, if you just want to trollop through today having a gay old time.


Bumper stickers drive me crazy, reader board sayings… My jaw tightens, my teeth clench…

Okay, not all the time but most certainly more often than not, though I get what they are trying to say, I find them short sighted, narrow minded or plain foolish (not in a kicks and giggles sort of way more in a moronic sort of way).

Sometimes quotes are very good. I have a few favorite quotes myself. But sometimes, sometimes quotes can be as frustrating for me as a bumper sticker.

The item, bumper sticker or quote, could be what is true for the majority of folks but ought not to be. Or true in a sense but not the sense it then gets used for, abused for. Not unlike the bumper sticker, “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven,” while in a sense it is true I find it to be a load of crap.

Why? First off, forgiven is not a small matter as “just” implies, and secondly, forgiveness doesn’t end with being forgiven as “just” indicates.

Because it is on a bumper sticker or some one’s chest, it clearly announces straight away that the person sporting it does not care to be reminded that they may have offended a stranger, neighbor, sister, brother or God himself. Because after all, Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven. Way to hold out that light in a corrupt and depraved generation. Woo-hoo! you go girl! Sista


Some quotes are like verses from Scripture, full of wisdom and guiding insight.

Some quotes may be insightful but they sure as heck should not guide us, these are often quotes of humorists. I read such a quote today. “Getting married is very much like going to a restaurant with friends. You order what you want, then when you see what the other fellow has, you wish you had ordered that”.–Unknown.

I’m sorry for the unfortunate reality for some people in that. I’m sorry that people see that as truth but do not see the scorn. The kicks and giggles we get at our inability to live like God desires us to. Our severe lack of accepting of His good gift and being content with what has been given, not resignation, but truly content.

I know dear reader, you’re shaking your head right now. You are saying to yourself, “Oh Lanny, lighten up. No body lives by these clever, humorous sayings. They are just funny little light things.”

I know, I’m a down right wet blanket kill joy aren’t I?

But if something was not true would it be funny? Aren’t things funny, make us chuckle because they could be true, usually for some unfortunate schmuck true most of the time?

Should we really find humor and a quiet little chuckle in something that is a sin? Yes, I said sin. Our discontentment is sinful and no less so in this very quote. The man or woman who was so indecisive as to covet his neighbor’s plate is coveting his neighbor’s spouse, that would make it, what, sin number 10?.

There oft is, unfortunately, truth in a quote such as this and we should be able to look at these and see the truth and the shame and be humbled into change, whether it be personally or be charged to make an impact that would change it in some one’s life. They, poignant quotes, should spur us on to love and good deeds, not guffaws.

The restaurant quote is unfortunately an acceptable reality in a society where even though everyone signs up for the wedding vows that speak of “’til death do us part” they have a back up plan. But I dare say our response ought not to be kicks and giggles and a “good for the goose good for the gander” approach. But it ought to pull us up short and ask us, “Do you feel that way?”

If you do you better get it straight in your head, you better begin praying that the Holy Spirit imbue you with contentedness, godly contentedness. You better start praying and saying that while that used to be you it is not anymore and you are so glad you did not order what your neighbor ordered because you know that what you did order really is just what you needed and wanted. And maybe while you are at it you ought to confess and repent to your chicken Marsala that you really wanted it and not the veal parmigiana.

And if that isn’t you in that quote, be bold, make it the cool thing to do to stand up and say; you never wanted anything but what you agreed to, the Chef prepared for you and the waiter brought you!


Okay, I’m done, you can take your hand off your bumper sticker now.

Have a great day! No really, I mean that!.