Jim Dandy

Yesterday was the release of Shrek. Kids eye’s were glued on an Ogre that only exists within the human imagination. Kids laugh at the silliness of the movie while adults get all the sexual innuendoes. So this is not about Shrek, but this is about something that happened on the way to Shrek. Nothing really big, but just caused an epiphany of sorts inside this mind of mine.

I was with my mom and three year old nephew, Brycen. We had gotten out of the car and my mom decided that it would be a good idea to walk through Belk to get to the movie theatre. It processed through my mind that my mom wanted to walk through Belk for alternative reasons. For shopping reasons.

So Brycen and I decided that it would be faster to walk around then walk through. Our hypothesis was right. Our conclusion was that walking around Belk rather than through is faster. My nephew concluded all this by one statement, “We beat her!” Now here is where my epiphany occurred. No one turned their head when he said this. Because this imperative statement could mean much more than our simple little race. It could be a confession between two or more criminals, “We beat her.” Or two or more people talking to another person while looking at a person they just beat up saying, “We beat her.” Out of these three scenarios why did people pick the first? My hunch is context. Context includes location. They heard my nephew’s statement. And immediately recognized what was going on.

The same as if I say, “I like him.” For example some one says, “Who is John?” I say, “John is a friend of mine.” They ask, “Is he a good guy?” Then I say, “I like him.” Now pretty crappy scenario I know. But this is not a homosexual confessional statement from me. But it is just me saying that I think John is a good guy. You get this sense from context. But if I say, “I like this girl.” This means that I potentially have romantic feelings for some girl. I would not use this kind of statement to say that I think a certain girl is nice. Because context says that I mean more than just like as a friend. Now to take any of these scenarios out of context you would get a totally different picture.

We do this all the time. Often times we don’t realize it. But we do it to so many people with out even thinking twice. But one thing is true we all hate being taken out of context, but we don’t mind one bit taking someone else’s words out OF context. You have now entered into this complex mind of mine. Because my point is simple. Within these simple words that we say there are complex ideas hidden behind these words. Yet I find myself sometimes limiting people to a few couple of words. I wouldn’t say for one second that I can be defined by a couple of words. “Who is Jason?” and they say, “Well, he is a funny guy!” This would be a slap in the face. Not because I don’t think I am a funny guy, but that I recognize that it is not the only thing that defines me.

We do this all the time. We see a homeless person and we define them in a few words. This defines how we approach them. But if we are people that treat everyone as a human. Everyone with respect and dignity no matter what the circumstances. We will begin to understand the context in which they live. It is not denying that a homeless person is homeless but it is recognizing there is more to their homelessness.

Context keeps one in check. It asks the simple question, “Is there more?” Is one simply homeless to be homeless? Or is there more that I am not seeing? Context calls us deeper. This not only has implications for the people we come into contact with, but it also calls us deeper into scripture. Many times we ignore context of a biblical writer just to capture one single verse, and often times missing the true meaning of what the biblical writer was trying to get to. Phillipians 4:13 most Christian’s know it, but I would begin to argue that we have no idea what Paul was getting at when he wrote this verse. We ignore context simply because it is easier. Finding context with any and everything takes time and energy. We should all invest ourselves in some way, shape, or form. I caught myself just last night playing ultimate frisbee with some friends. There was a few people there that I did not know. And immediately I started to stereotype them. Then I said to myself, “Context! Context! Context!”