Phil. 2:3

Isn’t it funny how God can use things you encounter in life to teach you about yourself? Every now and again, He uses something I see, hear, or read to give me an “ah-ha” kind of moment. Well, He struck again.

Last night I tweeted about seeing two individuals looking as if they were about to start duking it out at any moment. Though no punches were thrown, there was lots of verbal sparring. I remember silent praying, “Please don’t let one of them be the person I’m delivering to.” And when no one answered the door to the apartment I was bringing pizza to, I was definitely afraid one was.

That being said, I had to stand there and listen to one of the individuals belittle and berate the other one. Now, I didn’t see the incident that kicked off the whole thing. By what I overheard I ascertained one of the guys kicked at the other guy’s dog. Who knows what may have brought that about? But the dog owner’s reaction was, in my opinion, overblown.

Here’s what got me. The dog’s owner, whom we will from now on refer to as “white collar guy” belittled and berated the individual whom we will refer to as “blue collar guy”. (These tags will become clear momentarily.) I mean, white collar guy was rude! He called blue collar guy a multitude of names, a number of which I will not repeat. But among them were names issued contemptuously, like “blue collar” and “redneck”.

During this conversation, the white collar guy insulted blue collar’s intelligence, his income, and his home stability. I never really heard what blue collar was saying, because white collar kept shouting him down. Or maybe he was trying to maintain some modicum of decorum. I don’t know.

And I remember thinking that one should never treat another human being that way. No one should ever talk to another person the way white collar was talking to blue collar. It made me sad, partially because I’m a little “white collar” myself, and I felt bad that this guy was misrepresenting.

Here’s where God showed up and tweaked my nose. You see, I tell myself that I would never talk to anybody in such a manner. But God revealed to me that, sometimes, white collar guy resides in my head.

We all have our prejudices. None of them are really okay. Not for a believer anyway. And I have to confess that there is a part of me that looks down on the rednecks of the world. Not because I am better (and I certainly don’t make more money) but because I think differently than they do.

So yeah, though I like to believe I don’t use choice words in my head in reference to others, I have been known to mutter “idiot” or “moron” to myself, or via inner dialogue about people who don’t see things exactly the way I do. And I got to see, first hand, how ugly that really looks.
Let this be an apology as well as a confession. I am deeply sorry. Sorry for considering myself better than anyone for any reason. Sorry that I would be condescending, even if it’s only in my thoughts. Philippians 2:3 says: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” I need to work on that. Forgive me while He develops this in me?

Thoughts On Open Carry

So about this whole "Open Carry" thing here in Texas. I find myself strangely ambivalent. Which is odd coming from such a hard core liberal as myself. (Just kidding. I am neither hard core nor completely liberal when it comes to politics.) I am, however, a strange juxtaposition of gun control and gun rights. Which, I suppose, explains the ambivalence.

Let me explain. First of all, I think because the Constitution says we have the right to bear arms, we have...the right bear arms. But I think where I disagree with some gun right proponents is what constitutes as an arm we have the right to bear. Confused yet? I'll expound.

The word arm, in context to our conversation and as defined by just about any dictionary, means weapon. Now a weapon can be anything from a gun to a knife, a pistol to a missile. And though you may disagree with me, I hardly think that our forefathers had nukes in mind when they wrote the 2nd Amendment. I also don't think they believed we would never advance in weaponry beyond what was available in the 17th century.

So the first question I can think of when it comes to this topic is: Where do we draw the line at what is a reasonable weapon for a common citizen to have readily available? Though I am sure Uzis are extremely cool, I don't think it's a necessary addition to Joe Blow's already extensive collection.

Second of all, let's discuss what a right really is. Again, the dictionary defines it as something due to a person or governmental body by law, tradition, or by nature. But I would ask this: Is everyone really due the ability to own a weapon?

For example, let's say we have a paranoid schizophrenic. Now, when said individual takes his prescribed medication, said individual is possibly a productive member of society. But would you really want to put a gun in the hands of such an individual during a paranoid episode? I wouldn't.

By and large, I say we should keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. You know, like murderers, mobsters, and morons. But that's just me. Seriously, we have to admit that there are some citizens of our nation who would be better off without access, and we, too, would be better off without them having access.

Now, this of course begs the question: Who decides who has the right? And this is a fair question. One that cannot be easily answered. Someone will always somehow feel slighted.

But now...open carry...still not generally opposed to it. And here's why. You have to be licensed to carry. That means that someone, somewhere, developed a testing program that qualifies people to be responsible gun owners/carriers. Also, since we already have concealed handgun licenses at this point anyway, what's the difference between carrying where we can see, and carrying when we can't. Their still carrying!

And that, I'm afraid, is my two cents.