Last week I attended the graduation ceremony for the prison group that Miss Betty and Terry Baker work with. It was a very interesting gathering, to say the least. At first I felt a little claustrophobic as I surrendered my Texas Driver's License to the guards and then walked through locked gate after locked gate, until we reached the chapel.
Each of the inmates was given the chance to share something, and I wrote down what one of them said. He told the assembled group that when he began this recovery course, he had a bad case of the 'yeah, buts'. Someone would say to him, 'you're in jail' and he would say, 'yeah but it wasn't my fault.' He said that, as a result of the work that had come from this class, he was slowly changing that habit.
Many, many times in recent history I have wanted to say 'yeah, but...'. Like, 'I heard you got fired', and my immediate reaction is 'yeah, but...'. I want so badly to defend myself, or make it someone else's fault, someone else's problem. But now I am trying to lay that down.
No more 'yeah, but'. Only, 'yes, and can I tell you what God is doing through that experience?'
3 comments:
Oh my! this really spoke to me. I am so guilty of saying, "yeah, but". I say it outloud to others and I say it to myself alot more. I hope I can start to change my vocabulary to, "let me tell you how God is working in this situation"
You know what, I think I have a terrible case of the "yeah, buts..."
I've never really thought about it like that before. Seems like a hard habit to kick, but I think it may be one I need to look into changing.
I think it is like a favorite teddy bear or blanket or pacifier -- hard to let go of. I remember Nate was four when we finally made him get rid of the pacifier. We had to take him to some friends house who had a baby and 'gift' him with it. Maybe we need to take our 'yeah, buts' to Jesus and 'gift' him with them?
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