In this world, we have attained so many cliche's it's ridiculous. I mean, The Lords Prayer can feel practically meaningless if you grew up with it not personally in a relationship with Jesus. I grew up that way, and that prayer was very empty for me.
I could list cliche's all the day long, but instead, I'm going to write about how learning in opposites might help us. Because I think what happens is that we use words or phrases over
and over and over and they can become "meaningless", and therefore lose their power.
For instance:
BE REAL WITH PEOPLE (you've heard this many a times) What then does it mean? Do we see people in our culture being REAL with one another? Are you, am I, being REAL with others?
It seems to me this is difficult to find, and I don't see it much lived out with people. Maybe I'm cynical, or in the wrong places.
TRY THIS: BE FAKE WITH PEOPLE. What does it mean to be FAKE? Analyze that for awhile, and then DO THE OPPOSITE of what your definition of FAKE is.
My goal here is to try to get us to see how we might not be living our lives to the FULLEST. Jesus said He came to give us ABUNDANT life! We aren't living that way unless we are actually LIVING OUT what we know and believe.
Maybe we'll get woken up to the point of a certain word bugging us, or we'll realize when we see a word, that "Gosh, ya, I get it, I want to be real with people, because after analyzing the word "Fake", I'm ready to be REAL."
Let's try another one:
JUST DO IT.
The opposite?
JUST DON'T DO IT. What if we analyzed and thought about not doing it, doesn't it feel negative? Doesn't it make you feel like wanting to do the opposite of "Just Don't Do It?!"
LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
The opposite?
yep, HATE ONE ANOTHER (I would run to the opposite of this one)!!!
PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH (or have your walk match your talk).
opposite?
DON'T PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH (in other words, talk talk talk all you want, but don't walk or live that way)
TELL THE TRUTH.
opposite?
you guessed it. LIE
If we stop and look at these opposites, and ask ourselves how much we are living our life to the fullest, what would YOUR answer be?
Let's all try to think of phrases and words in the opposite to drive home the idea that we MUST live our life to the FULLEST, and live it abundantly with purpose.
