SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE PICTURE

Barreling ahead briskly, I was taking one of my daily walks. The trail I perambulated, bordered by trees on one side and mown grass on the other, goes through a beautiful, secluded, picturesque part of the park. I thought I had the trail to myself; then, I could smell their presence before I saw or heard them. Medical caretakers from the nursing home on the other side of the trees had made an opening in the foliage through which they daily carried metal, folding chairs which they positioned to face the beauty of the park. There, smoking, they spent their breaks. Cigarette smoke climbed the sides of the trees towards the beautiful blue above, wafted across the green meadow, and meandered its way along the trail. Immediately and instinctively my mind registered the impression of incongruency, an impression much like hearing someone playing the trumpet hitting an off-key, high-pitched note. Something was wrong with the picture. Now, those ladies may each have been a wonderful person. I do not question their dedication to their patients or their skill and attention in caring for them. That would required prejudiced, unmerited assumptions. Nevertheless, my mind could not fail to register the incongruency—health care workers engaged in a practice that was unhealthy. If any should know of the harm of cigarette smoking, it should be they; yet, they were smoking. If any should warn folks about smoking, it should be they. Yet, they were smoking. No doubt, some or all of them had had or did have patients who died or were dying from lung cancer brought on by smoking. Yet, they were smoking. Yes, however one looks at it, something was wrong with the picture. Something incongruent. Something out of tune. Something inharmonious. Something contradictory. I write this not to take a self-righteous jab at habitual smokers. No. I write because I immediately thought of how so often so many Christians do so many things that are incongruous with the name they bear, the experience they are supposed to have, and the beliefs they are supposed to hold. As incongruous as smoking is to a health care worker, such is an angry, hate-saturated, ad hominin political harangue to a Christian. Hearing curse words coming out of a Christians’ mouth is no different than seeing cigarette smoke coming from a pulmonary surgeon’s lips. Cigarette smoking leaves a pungent scent in the air. So, does self-righteousness. A sour, pompous Christian who looks over his glasses of self-righteousness perched on his snobbishly raised nose with harsh disdain that says to the sinner, “ You are trash,” fills the air with a stench that causes the unsaved to find a detour round him. If the waitress knows one is a Christian, and he leaves a tract instead of tip, she hears a sour note that destroys any song of witness he may have given. The Christian called it evangelism. The waitress sees only selfishness, ingratitude. The driver of the car in front of you is in the uniform of the local children’s hospital. Passing, you see the glow of her cigarette and that fog of the smoke that fills the car’s interior. Incongruent. Yes, but what of the driver of the car with the fish bumper sticker whose road rage has filled and escaped his vehicle? Perhaps, as Christians we each should ask, “When people see my life, do they smell smoke? Do they hear a sour note? Do they remark, “Something is wrong with this picture?”

SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE PICTURE

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