Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

• Exodus 20:7

We praise you, God,
    we praise you, for your Name is near;
    people tell of your wonderful deeds.

• Psalm 75:1

The name of the Lord is a fortified tower;
    the righteous run to it and are safe.

• Proverbs 18:10

Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

• James 3:5-6

“For us, ‘God’ is not a general concept with which we designate the highest, most holy, most powerful being imaginable; rather, ‘God’ is a name. When pagans say ‘god,’ it is something quite different from what it is when we, to whom God himself has spoken, say ‘God.’ For us, God is our God, the Lord, the One who lives. ‘God’ is a name, and this name is the most sacred thing we possess, for what we have in it is not something we thought up, but God himself in his whole being, in his revelation. If we can say ‘God,’ it is only because God, in his incomprehensible grace, has made himself known to us. When we say ‘God,’ it is as if we can hear God himself speaking to us, calling us, comforting us, commanding us; we feel him acting for us, creating, judging, renewing. ‘We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks; your name is near’ (Ps. 75:1) The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and are safe’ (Prov. 18:10). The word ‘god’ is nothing. The name ‘God’ is everything.”

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I Want to Live These Days with You (devotion for February 9, devotions compiled from his writings)

I confessed some time ago that my devotional life was suffering since my wife had passed away, actually for a time before.  But I am now getting into Oswald Chambers’ Daily Thoughts for Disciples in the morning, and I resurrected this Bonhoeffer devotional next to the bed at night, actually reading it this time.  I am trying to right the ship and get the train back on the tracks.  With God’s help, I will get there.

In this devotion, Bonhoeffer speaks of the name of God.  While the bookend commandments, the First Commandment and the Tenth Commandment, are the commandments that lead to the one’s in between, this commandment, the third, is the one most obviously broken.  As Bonhoeffer says, ‘god’ to an unbeliever is nothing, but I differ in that thought ever so slightly.  The unbeliever uses ‘god’ to add emphasis to what is said.  My platoon sergeant said to me that if I did not use a “hell” or “damn” in my speech, the ‘city boys’ will never hear me.  In other words, they were so in tune with gutter language that they only listened when emphasis was added.  Thus, the unbeliever has meaning when saying ‘god’.  And the meaning is usually not nice at all.  And another meaning is that once the name of God becomes trivial in our speech, it means God has already become trivial in our thoughts, and the other nine commandments quickly erode away.

Note: My platoon sergeant said that there were no races in the platoon.  We were all green, but he made the distinction between city boys and country folk.  Of the country folk, I only had one, a Hawaiian, who was arrested for drunk and disorderly.  As I picked him up from the lockup and drove him to morning formation, still in his uniform from the previous day and still unsteady on his feet, he was the only one that ever broke down, cried, and apologized for disappointing me.  The rest of the troublemakers were city boys who never apologized.  They sat in the backseat of my car trying to think about how they won’t get caught the next time.  They never were smart enough to not get caught.

But there is another problem with the Bonhoeffer quote.  The use of ‘god’ is so prevalent today, about ninety years after Bonhoeffer wrote this, that many people in the church use ‘god’ as an emphasis word, or such a commonly misused word that they do not even know they are saying it, or they disguise it with OMG.  Forget it!  We know what you meant.

We are like the closing of a Justin Wilson comedy routine.  He lowered his voice and spoke in an apologetic tone.  He talked about how he peppered his Cajun stories with an occasional mild explicative, H*** or D***.  He went on to say that the people who shared those stories with him used that language, but if he had offended anyone, he was truly sorry.  He then went on to be even more apologetic.  Then he ended with, “Now, don’t that sound nice. I didn’t meant a D*** word of it.  H*** No!”

And so many people who call themselves Christians are the same way.  They slip up.  They apologize, but if Jesus was on the throne in the command center of your heart, you would not have said it in the first place.

I will slip, usually while driving, with an “S-word”, “D-word”, or “H-word”, in the heat of the moment of driving into the ditch to avoid the accident and then trying to get back up onto the road.  And to my embarrassment, the boys, when young, caused a D-word to slip when they pushed me too far.

But God is too important to be used lightly.  Lord means more than a title for British royalty.  And Jesus Christ is my Savior, without whom I am nothing.

But people have told me that the third commandment was stupid, usually telling me with more colorful language than that.  They paint God as being egotistical in that we must be reverent when we even mention His Name.

But I have two responses.  My name is Mark.  I cannot count the times someone, even in adulthood, would say, “Is that your name or are you imitating a hair lipped dog?”  My apologies to all people and dogs who are hair lipped.  I have never thought the remark to be funny.  I have always been embarrassed by it.  And as an adult?  How childish are you to come up with a bullyish playground response when first meeting someone?!

But God is the Creator of all things.  God is the God of the Universe.  God loves us and cares for us so intently that if I asked Him right now how many cells in my body are in need of repair, He would know.  And God is Holy.  Egotism is not something He does.  He deserves reverence and more than us simply zipping our lips and not saying what we think.

As James speaks of our devilish tongues, our tongue slips out what our mind is thinking.  Let us keep our mind focused on Jesus, and we will never have to worry about the Third Commandment.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.