![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/42\/2010\/08\/dentyne-advertisements1-300x150.jpg\")
<\/a>When fresh breath matters and when it doesn\u2019t<\/strong><\/p>\nI saw a big, three paneled ad on a wall at the airport at Philadelphia last week. It was like a secular triptych.<\/p>\n
The first panel showed two people embracing with the caption \u201cFriend request accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second panel showed two people hugging and laughing, and the caption read \u201cThe original voice mail.\u201d<\/p>\n
The third panel showed a man leaning into a tax and kissing a woman, with the caption\u201cThe original instant message.\u201d<\/p>\n
I wondered what the ad was for and looked more closely: Dentyne gum<\/p>\n
So Dentyne makes our breath fresh for interpersonal interactions.<\/p>\n
What other skills or qualities are necessary \u00a0for face to face interactions that are not so important when we\u2019re alone at our computer or with our iPhone instant messaging or tweeting or leaving a text or voicemail?<\/p>\n
Getting dressed. Leaving our house. Eye contact. \u00a0Listening.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not sure where I\u2019m going with this, I\u2019m just saying\u2026.<\/p>\n
She loves me, she loves me not. <\/strong><\/p>\n A colleague told me of an experience he had during a preacher seminar years ago. The professor leading the seminar sent the 10 students out to various places in the community: grocery store, bookstore, farmer\u2019s market, pool hall, pawn shop, fast food restaurant, etc. He told them to listen to people\u2019s conversations. My friend heard a mother and child playing a game in the grocery store. The child would reach for something to put in the cart; the mom would say \u201cMommy doesn\u2019t love you.\u201d The child would put it back and the mom would say \u201cMommy loves you.\u201d What an awful way to teach frugality!<\/p>\n Getting caught red handed<\/strong><\/p>\n I was watching John Stewart the other day and he had a list of ways people get caught red handed:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n His list made me start thinking about ways<\/p>\n Back in 2002 Bill Hybels wrote a book called Who Are You When No One\u2019s Looking: Choosing Integrity, Resisting Compromise. <\/em>I haven\u2019t read it, but I wish I\u2019d thought of the title. <\/em>It\u2019s a great question. <\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019ll bet lots of people have interesting stories about times they have been caught doing something they weren\u2019t supposed to be where they weren\u2019t supposed to be doing it. Some of them might even be fit to tell. I\u2019d love to hear them. Some of them might even preach!<\/p>\n Saying No and Saying No<\/strong><\/p>\n On another topic, did you know that you don\u2019t have to say yes to everything people ask you to do? There is a whole body of literature in Christian spirituality on \u201csaying yes and saying no.\u201d I have taught this topic for several years in a spiritual formation class for seminary students. \u00a0I have had my students read a helpful essay by M. Shawn Copeland called \u201cSaying Yes and Saying No.\u201d (Chapter 5 of Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for Searching People<\/em>, Edited by Dorothy C. Bass). But, as we all know, \u00a0teaching something and putting it into practice oneself are two different things.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been working on it, though. I\u2019ve been practicing standing in front of the mirror and placing my tongue against my inside upper teeth and slowing, deliberately saying the word \u201cno.\u201d I highly recommend it. I said \u201cno\u201d to two things this week. One was an invitation to teach a lay speaker\u2019s course the weekend my husband and I have planned to go to the Hill Country for our 30th<\/sup> wedding anniversary. The other was to attend a social event to welcome new students to SMU. It fell on the day I have promised my 21 year old son to help him get settled in his new apartment, hang curtains, etc. During the same week, I also said yes to two invitations later this fall to speak in area churches, but there was a time when that wouldn\u2019t have been enough for my works righteousness-dominated conscience. There was a time when I would have felt guilty about refusing the other two requests. But maybe then I was more susceptible to false guilt and had more permeable boundaries than I do now. That\u2019s progress, I think. \u00a0I\u2019m afraid I may be going too far with this though. Earlier this afternoon I drove by lemonade stand without stopping because I was in a hurry to get home and write this blog.\u00a0<\/p>\n What\u2019s Obsolete Now?<\/strong><\/p>\n On another topic, I\u2019ve been thinking about plot twists in movies and novels that have been made obsolete by technology.<\/p>\n There are no fingerprints at the crime scene so the killer gets away. (Ah, but now there\u2019s DNA testing of evidence)<\/p>\n The spy has to cross enemy lines to get the documents in the leather pouch into the right hands. (Or he could just send it as an email attachment.<\/p>\n There is no way to trace the villain\u2019s shady financial dealings to get a conviction (Just get the 14 year hacker to do it)<\/p>\n George drives too fast in traffic and loses Jerry and they can\u2019t contact each other (iPHone)<\/p>\n (Obscure Seinfeld reference)<\/p>\n There must be hundreds of examples I haven\u2019t thought of. I think this might preach because as Christians we live a new life that makes the old life with its strategies and methods and motivations obsolete.<\/p>\n Says Paul, \u201cFrom now on, we regard no one from a human point of view\u2026if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!\u201d (2 Corinthians 5:15,17)<\/p>\n \u00a0I\u2019m going to spend some of my meditation time this week discerning some examples of\u00a0 attitudes and , actions that Christ\u2019s influence in my inner life makes obsolete.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The ad showed two people kissing and the caption read, “The original instant message.” “What could this ad be for?” I wondered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
\n