left a bad taste

When I was 10, I had just returned home from this church summer camp for children, and I had woke up that night screaming because my ear was hurting. I mean it was throbbing. All I could feel was this stinging sensation on the left side of my ear. Come to find out I had gotten what they called "swimmers ear", b/c I logged lots of hours in the camp lake all week.

My Mom thought the best thing to do, was to put some drops of hydrogen peroxide, and maybe that would ease the pain. So she poured it into a glass and left it on the table. Though seeing that I am writhing in pain and screaming, she proceeds to give me some Tylenol as well. And in the midst of doing this she calls up our doctor (in the middle of the night) seeking advice on this situation. So you can see that she is a little distracted at the moment...So while still talking on the phone, she gives me the Tylenol and a glass of liquid to help it go down...and yep you guessed it...she gave me the glass of hydrogen peroxide to drink...I remember saying,"this water tastes funny...", with her saying,"Just drink it and take your medicine."

So after this she begins to look for the hydrogen peroxide to drop down my ears...coming to find out that her son had drank a good bit of it in a glass already...there she is calling the doctor back...ah good times...he said I would be fine (though some may disagree).

That stuff left a bad taste in my mouth...

I tell you that story because I think we as Christians can sometimes knowingly and unknowingly leave bad tastes in peoples mouths. Earlier this week, I saw on the news where this church was protesting at a gay fallen military funeral. They had signs like "God hates gays". The father sued the church and won for emotional and other damages. Come to find out that this "church" even has a website, that lists addresses of funerals for future protests. That upset me. I didn't know what to think. I mean I know sometimes we are wrong for not standing up for our beliefs and values. But is this what God wants?

There was also that incident with the Amish shootings last year. Where a "church" decided to protest because they said that the Amish don't serve the real God. It became so bad that host of a radio show on Fox news made a deal with the church, that if they didn't protest...they could have some radio air time to express their opinions about the issue. Maybe if they took time out of holding the picket signs and used their hands to help serve their fellow men, things would be better. Instead of taking that radio time to belittle others, they could give them words of comfort, hope, and even tell them about Jesus.

I mean aren't we supposed to hate the sin and love the sinner? Is it going to get to the point that when someone dies of drinking too much that we stand outside with a sign that says "God doesn't like drinkers!"? (and there goes half the church) When we get right down to it, we could all have signs at our funerals.

For to be honest none of us our perfect. It is only by the grace of God that we can find salvation. I even think about my brother in law, who is not a christian, and even the whole world, who look at this and say, "Where is God in this?...If this is what Christianity is... I don't want anything to do with it." What do you say to that?

We are leaving them not wanting more... We are leaving them with a bad taste in their mouth. The world has hurting people and instead of helping them, we find comfort in telling them what they are doing wrong. Probably because it makes us feel better. People are screaming in pain, like I was...

What are we doing?