I have been listening to the latest media juggernaut. It seems Mr. Don Imus, a well-known radio celebrity, used some fairly unflattering language when speaking about a certain university's women's basketball team. Since then several leaders of the black community have been calling for his professional head.
To make reparations, Mr. Imus has admitted his guilt, but also that it was an unthinking, un-Imus remark. In trying to placate that wrath of the "media-gods" he is trying to make everyone think that these remarks came out of nowhere. He says they are as reprehensible to him as they are to others. That may be. But they did not come from nowhere. And here is the lesson for him and for you and me.
The Lord told us that "out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." What the Son of God wanted us to know is that if we want to know where something came from, we look at ourselves. The Devil does not make us do it, and we cannot blame it on those who are too sensitive. Our sinful hearts are the source of those things that get us into trouble.
More than once I have made statements that I wish, sometimes immediately, I could retract, or better yet, make un-said. Where do these come from? From the heart. I may not even know the idea is there, but as the Prophet said, "the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, beyond understanding." And it is my heart. And it is your heart.
When we say or do thoughtless or wicked things, to get beyond them, we must own them. And then we must confess to the God who has already forgiven our sins. Oh, and then we must take our "lickin'" from those we offended. But through it all, the surprise should not be that there is wickedness in our hearts that will express itself when we are not looking, but that not expecting it to come out, we were not on guard.
