This headline probably evokes different thoughts from different people. If you’ve spent even a nanosecond listening to Christian radio, you’ve heard the song that bears the same title a couple dozen, if not multiple trillions of times. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a delightful song with a wonderful message. And if you tell anybody I used “delightful” and “wonderful” in the same sentence, I’ll deny it vociferously. The song was recorded by contemporary Christian band MercyMe. Before the song curb stomped any and all challengers to the K-LOVE repetition thrown, mercy me was a simple interjection expressing surprise or alarm, at least according to the internet. For an ironic example, if you listen to your local Christian radio station for more than 12 or 13 minutes and don’t hear I Can Only Imagine, you may rightfully exclaim “Mercy me!”. You might say it if the person in front of you at Starbucks orders a coffee using less than a couple dozen descriptors. As if. By the way, “Curb stomp” has its own page on Wikipedia. There are also images to illustrate a proper curb stomping, if you’re so inclined to check. My favorite entry in the curb stomp genre is a video that instructs the viewer how to survive one. Yes, this is the link. I did not watch it, because for the life of me I cannot imagine (see what I did there?) being in a scenario to implement this particular life hack. So if I get shuffled from this mortal coil via curb stomping, I guess the last laugh is on me.
The last time I counted, there were almost eight billion people on the planet. I’m taking an educated guess that I don’t share too many things in common with most of them. For instance, I don’t have to hunt and gather, unless driving to the local Piggly Wiggly and chucking stuff in a shopping cart counts. I don’t call shopping carts “buggies” either, because I am not a sociopath. Getting from point A to B on a beast of burden, needing a burlap sack, and dodging rooftop sniper fire, to name a few things, aren’t in my wheelhouse. I haven’t shoveled snow or slipped on ice in over 25 years, and I don’t miss it even a little bit. There are any number of isms that I haven’t engaged, governmentally, religiously, or philosophically. Where many don’t use an Oxford comma, I obviously do, because again, I am not a sociopath. None of us has to try very hard to notice differences or that which is uncommon, or even off-putting to us. As unbelievable as it may seem, there are those that are somewhat less chuffed with this obscure blogger than I am with myself. Go figure. I interact on a daily basis with folks that prefer hot tea over coffee, soccer over real sports, Windows over iOS, and other unimaginable horrors. But ultimately, each of us, even soccer fans, share a basic, elemental truth.
Are we focusing on what we perceive to be negative in others, or do we look for the grace inherent to us all?
(Click “Stand on Firmer Ground” for a deeper look into I Can Only Imagine)