Becoming a New Rebel

"Awaken a new generation to its heavenly destiny with this revolutionary resource! Fresh perspectives, inspiring biblical insights, and relevant life applications address 24 cutting-edge issues young people care about most, including relationships, money, health, faith, and worship. Ideal for emergent church leaders and young adults passionate about their faith!"

That is the description from Christianbook.com where I DID NOT purchase the book: The New Rebellion Handbook I stumbled upon this book this past Sunday while leaving church. I was perusing our church bookstore and the funky antique looking pages caught my eye. Of course the words "new rebellion" had NOTHING to do with it. I started reading it on the way home and I was on page 22 when I said out loud "Whoa, this book is NASTY!" which I further explained to my husband that it is not in a bad way. The book is sort of sneaky in how it sucks you in and then throws in a big question such as the one on page 22:

"What occupies the greatest amount of time, thinking, and emotional energy in your life?"

A moment of panic while I grasp for the answer to the question and then because so many things can be the answer to that question I decided I would have to go back to that later, once I got home.

It goes on further and states "Is whatever dominates your mind born of God's Kingdom? Or is it characterized by the empty and temporary shell of this world's systems?"

COOL! The things that dominated my answer were mostly "born of God's Kingdom"...Yee Ha! That rocked! Still, need to revisit that question but at least I had a better sense of what a "new rebel" was supposed to be doing. Interesting enough, 2 years ago I would not have been able to have felt that way. I would have been "characterized by the empty and temporary shell of this world's systems"...how sad.

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Funny enough I still catch myself making statements that in hindsight I wish I would have phrased better. Like today, speaking with another staff member at the church we were having a conversation about something and I said something about "morons" because the old me judged people and did not think about things like education (or lack there of) being born out of circumstance. The new me, still uses that term because it has become part of my vernacular and I need to replace it with something like "unqualified" or "poorly educated" or "of the wrong skill set"

Dictionary.com defines the term moron as:

mo·ron (môrn, mr-)n.

1. A stupid person; a dolt.
2. Psychology. A person of mild mental retardation having a mental age of from 7 to 12 years and generally having communication and social skills enabling some degree of academic or vocational education. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive.

So, obviously I was using the word WAY out of context. The people I was referring to are not morons. They are "of the wrong skill set" and instead of choosing my words wisely I just said what came most comfortably out of my mouth. SO, to my fellow staff person - I apologize because that must have made you feel uncomfortable; to those that I was referring to - I apologize. It is just that the term (moron) had become such a part of my everyday relaxed speaking pattern that I did not think about it and it slipped out. So, I still have work to do. Especially on my word usage.Wow, what a wake up call. I always wonder how a particular band came up with their name...maybe this is what they meant by Godsmack!