what does your life say?

I got the following email from a friend today:

"Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read.
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny."

I have been teaching on how our every action, deed, and thought becomes a composite of who we are. Little things we do in life, over time, that defines us to ourselves, our place in history, and to those around us. We are what we eat theory.

One person asked me what i thought about porn. My only response was that anything that causes you to become less than what you are, that becomes an addiction you can't shake, is bad. Not because "what it is", but more so how it controls you: Anger, Resentment, Porn, Food, Sex, Wine, Smoking, NASCAR, whatever...

I went and saw "Mr. Brooks" last weekend at the movies. Kevin Costner plays a seriel killer who is addicted to killing. He gets off on it. Goes to AA and claims to be an addict, only no one there knows what kind of addict. He knows he has a problem, but can't shake it because it controls him. It has taken on a personality all its own that actually persuades him to do this act or that act. Its scary.

Mine is cynicism. It controls me. Gets the best of me. Makes me quick to fire off a remark. It is good, but to a point it gets bad. It affects all aspects of my life: family, marriage, kids, work, church. Most of the time I am right about something, but my approach, my response to the situation comes across as cras.

And then I get this email. And it reminds me that I do claim this label of "Christian". Not because I am holier than thou, not because I have it all figured out, not because I know the scriptures, but because somewhere in my life, my childhood, this Jesus fellow was presented to me as real. As a way of life that can't be topped. That I should do this or that because it is True, it is Real, it is Love.

I cannot change this.

I hope my life, the only bible some people will read, readily reflects this.