You Can’t Do That IN Church!

The following conversation was recently overheard at a church I was singing for:

Kid: #$%#?!@?!!%$!
Mother: What?? You can’t cuss in church! If you want to talk like that, go out into the parking lot!

Really?

This exchange reminded me of a situation I witnessed back when I was youth group age – a student got caught smoking dope in the parking lot during youth group and his defense was that he wasn’t smoking it IN church.

REALLY? Are we this stupid? Do we really think that what offends God inside the church building is somehow OK outside? Are we so naive as to believe that God is confined by architecture? Do we really think we are fooling anyone?

Let’s be clear… those things that break God’s heart and those things that make God smile… they do so everywhere. In the church building or outside of it. In youth group or in a bar. In a church committee or in the US Senate. In our public actions or in our private thoughts. Everywhere.

“The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;” ~ Psalm 24:1