God Loves the Dingbat

Beginnings, choices and voices ...beginnings, choices, and voices …(Ephesians 6:11-13) Daily, the wrestling match ensues... Oh, it is not with the people out there driving too slow, making our lives miserable, getting in our faces, stealing the show, butting in line, taking the credit, blaming us, shaming us, and treating us like dirt. Our struggle is not with the waster, the divert-er, the boaster, the people user, the abuser, and the hypocrite. We will all fall victim to those whose only defense for their failures is to throw the suspicion towards “those” people, and “those” people will always find themselves hurled under the proverbial bus. And we will find ourselves as “those” people. Welcome to the “under the bus” club!   Note for Thought: If we start under the bus, there is hope for us.

That “Dingbat” … woe! When I heard that I just had to find out where that came from. A quick Google search revealed these synonyms:  
berk [British], booby, charlie (also charley) [British], cuckoo, ding-a-ling, fool, ding-dong, dipstick, doofus [slang], featherhead, git [British], goose, half-wit, jackass, lunatic, mooncalf, nincompoop, ninny, ninnyhammer, nit [chiefly British], nitwit, nut, nutcase, simp, simpleton, turkey, yo-yo (Oh, we are loving this!)

I found even more: daredevil; madman, madwoman; airhead, birdbrain, blockhead, cretin, dodo, dolt, donkey, dope, dork [slang], dumbbell, dummy, dunce, fathead, gander, goon, half-wit, idiot, ignoramus, imbecile, know-nothing, knucklehead, moron, numskull (or numbskull), pinhead, schlub (also shlub) [slang], schlump [slang], schnook [slang], stock; featherbrain, scatterbrain; butt, dupe, laughingstock, mockery, monkey; chump, loser, schlemiel (also shlemiel); character, codger, crackbrain, crackpot, crank, kook, oddball, screwball, weirdo (now we have even more ammo!)

As self appointed "gods", we as humans are so good at coming up with names to put others outside of the “normal?” universe that we rule. WE ALL DO THIS because we are intimidated by beginnings, choices and voices that could have the potential to cause failure in our lives. We have developed a reflex that will "wrestle against flesh and blood" instead of trusting the Way, the Truth and the Life.

We don't want to be associated with a risk that could tarnish our name; so instead of love being the overt stamp of grace on others… we choose to tattoo shame on the fallen and create untouchable outcasts out of those whom Christ died for. WE HAVE NO RIGHT!
 
How does God respond to the ninny-hammer, the dingbat, the crackhead? Do you truly realize that “We have all gone out of the way” and “we have all become unprofitable” and “none of us (continually) do good” … “no not one”. We absolutely have no qualifications to disqualify. We have not a good enough name to derogatorily rename another.

 “And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” Gen.32:30 “Turning away blameless”. Wow! Seeing God face to face. God, who had the potential to do things far more devastating to him than any enemy he would ever encounter, and all that He plunders and carries away is Jacob's old life. Jacob stands there after the dust settles with a limp and a new name that shouts “God Prevails!”. Jacob no more … walk on, move forward, Oh Israel!

Jacob faced God with all the crud that he was, and God set him forward as blameless and beloved. Love is the true power of our God … He knows that we will fall upon narrow torrential passage ways in life that could devastate us. Instead of writing us off, He stays with us, wrestles with us, and blesses us in the end.

Are we willing to see the beginnings, choices and voices as an opportunity to empty ourselves of “self” and be filled with Him? If so, we will find as Jacob did ... “God Prevails!”.

A loser becomes beloved, as a loser loves the unloved, for God loves the loser and the unloved...follow His example.

HLFA,

Jeff