Presence may be disputed!

Logomachy means that there is a dispute about words and their meaning.  But if actions really do speak louder than words, there can be a bombshell dispute about actions!   And I don't know the word recognized by the dictionary for a dispute about actions!    But consider the major dispute that is going on in Texas when a Texas high-school track team was disqualified after the team won and one of the team pointed to the sky!    The father says his son was giving God the credit;  the Superintendent of Schools, a man who will probably be running to get the heck out of Texas, says that raising a finger or shouting out obscenities, while in the competition area, is taunting the opposition!

But right now, this team will not be going to State and, right now, this team will not be claiming their final victory before going to State.   Fireworks may still be seen and the Superintendent probably better be dusting off his resume!

I thought and thought about this.  The truth is that Christians put themselves in so many situations by their own actions and sometimes they don't realize that they are not in the competition area.   But they are constantly judged by someone else's rules.   That will not change.  Christ faced it in his own lifetime.   He did not fit in with the rules of the Scribes and Pharisees so he set about writing down his own set of rules and values and conduct.   He realized that he, along with his followers down the line, would have to live in the competition area.  And he tried to tell them and us what the new rules should look like.

This track star, in all probability, meant no disrespect to any existing rules.   He was probably into the moment.  But in our words and our actions, all of us who call ourselves Christians, need to think about logomachy and stupid acts and stunts that hurt our winning message of hope to others!  And how someone else, looking on from afar, might misinterpret our words and actions!