You never know when another Christian is around, and THAT is the problem.

I recently had a foot-in-mouth moment.

I was sitting IN the church building, not during service, but for a workday.

I was surrounded by Christians and NON Christians.  We were currently renovating the church building, so we had volunteers from the body and hired help from the community.

Now, I can have a pretty dry sense of humor and sometimes I can sling sarcasm and witty bits out like I was David slinging stones at Goliath.  Precision people, precision.

And while I am not going into the details of what I said, lets just say..... I let a one liner slip.  And the 2 guys who heard it were hysterically laughing.  They had made a comment, I made a quick witty response.  It happened before I could even think it through.  Like when you cough and your gum shoots out of your mouth onto the floor.

Not only did it come out of my mouth.... there was not putting it back in.

Immediately I said "Oh, I shouldn't have said that."

The contractor guy said "Yeah, I'm not sure I want to sit next to you... lightening might strike you."

We all laughed about it.  Me more nervously, all the while I was self deprecating in my head.

I came home and told my husband the story.  I said "I am so glad no one from the church was there to hear it.  I don't know what I was thinking."

My husband, God bless him, has a pretty warped sense of humor and he found it funny.  He would have found it funnier if someone from the church was there to hear it too.  But, that is why I married him.  He understands that not everything that comes out of my mouth is meant earnestly.  He gets my humor.  He doesn't ever hold it against me, because he knows exactly the kind of person I am.

But that day hasn't left my memory.  Because, I was relieved that there wasn't anyone from my church in the room.  But that doesn't mean there wasn't another Christian in the room.  That doesn't mean that a person who knows nothing about me, didn't hear a member of my church (me) say something mildly inappropriate.  And, if those who were in the room with me were truly unbelievers... I am not sure I helped my witness at all.

And then I continued thinking about it.  And today... there was something that hit me...

We are called to be different than the world.

If we are in a room with others, they should know by our behavior, words and actions that we are Christians.

If they can't discern us as different than the rest of the world, we are doing something wrong.

I learned I needed to tame my tongue.

I am not saying we need to wear bonnets and dresses down to our ankles.  I am saying that our presence should exude God.  We are His vessels in this world.  When they see us, they see Him.  How are we presenting Him to the world?

At the same time, this doesn't give us permission to unleash a verbal tirade to everyone in the world who is not living up to His standards.  We still approach people with compassion, mercy and grace.  We still address non-believers differently than we would address believers.  We address new believers differently than we would addressed seasoned believers.

There is balance.

The world is constantly surprised when a Christian is NOT a hypocrite.  When they actually live, breathe and walk in accordance to the world.  This should be a GIVEN not an EXCEPTION.

Because the world sees this as an exception, and not a given... it means we are falling short.  We need God, we need Jesus, we need the Holy Spirit more than ever to come into our lives, transform us... how we act, what we say, etc MORE THAN EVER.

We are starting to blend into the world.  We are becoming the gray in the darkness.  We need to be the light.