Blog 3459 – 04.23.2025

Hot of Cold

One of the great insights into the nature of the God of the New Testament happens to be one of the easier to understand passages from the last book of the Bible, The Revelation. The passage quotes God saying, “I would rather that you were hot or cold, but because you are lukewarm I will spew you out of my mouth.”

The line reminds me of another more contemporary quote regarding what is a far bigger problem in life than people taking extreme positions. And in a word that tepid position is called apathy. I am reminded of a joke that goes. “There is too much apathy in the world today, but who cares.”

What God in The Book of the Revelation, the contemporary quote, and even the lame joke about apathy is trying to tell us is – Take a position, get off the fence, get up out of the easy spectator chair, and take a stand, let your voice be heard and take action, right or wrong, hot or cold because being uncommitted, in the middle, tepid and lukewarm is a sickening and tasteless position to take or to be in.

Jesus once warned those in his inner circle to refuse to allow the world to dampen their enthusiasm by pressing them into its mold. Zealots for any cause or endeavor always face the same initial response from the crowd to just be quiet, stop making waves, to just sit down and stop rocking the boat and upsetting the status quo. Do not listen to the nay sayers, we are here to be and to make a difference.

As a wise man once told a very up tight young woman who had made herself miserable by trying to please everyone. “We all have a freak flag. Your problem is that you are just not flying yours.” Often we worry too much about “fitting-in” when what the world truly needs is the difference that we are uniquely designed to contribute to this wonderful patchwork quilt called life.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David James White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B9548oPxbhvxK_aXOdIuvGIcithksdad/view?usp=drivesdk

Not That Different