Foot in Mouth Disease - Pt 2

When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’” (Luke 14:15-24 ESV). Yesterday we saw that the first step toward curing our “foot-in-mouth” disease was to take control of our attitude. Today, we will see that the second insight for mending a situation we created by putting our foot in our mouth is to admit our wrongdoing. This is just another way of saying we not make excuses for our behavior. Remember the experience of Peter’s denial of Jesus in the courtyard after His arrest. Peter didn’t merely slink away into the night, he adamantly denied any knowledge or relationship of Jesus. And, this came after Jesus warned him it was likely to happen. Peter’s response to Jesus’ caution was that he would never do such a thing. He would rather die than leave Jesus! Well, we know what happened. Before we get too hard on Peter though remember the rest of the story. While we have no record in scripture of Peter actually apologizing to Christ for this episode of denial, we don’t find him trying to justify his denial either. We do find that when he thought about what he had said and done, he wept (Cf. Mark 14:72). This is no doubt an indication that he felt bad about himself and what he had done. He felt guilty for denying Christ and cursing. He wasn’t going to try to justify his actions. This is the second key principle to curing our own “foot-in-mouth” disease. In his book with Ken Blanchard, "Everyone’s A Coach", Don Shula tells of losing his temper near an open microphone during a televised game with the Los Angeles Rams. Millions of viewers were surprised and shocked by Shula’s explicit profanity. Letters soon arrived from all over the country, voicing the disappointment of many that had respected the coach for his integrity. Shula could have given excuses, but he didn’t. Everyone who included a return address received a personal apology. He closed each letter by stating, "I value your respect and will do my best to earn it again." There are two ways to gain respect. One is to act nobly. The other is when you fail to do so, to make no excuses. When you try to justify your foot in mouth disease you only tend to make matters worse. Admitting we are wrong is always difficult, but it is the doorway to freedom. Tomorrow we’ll see how to step through that door.