Spark2Flame

I certainly didn’t intend for it to happen, but I find it staring me in the face recently. I can blame it on my kids or any number of circumstances, but it doesn’t change the fact I have become an overemphasizer. I’m pretty sure I know why I do it, but it keeps proving completely ineffective and I am growing more frustrated with the results. Here’s a typical situation as an example:

I start yelling from upstairs, “Kids! Get your coat and shoes on! We’ve got to go to school. Hurry up!”

Five minutes go by: “Kids, do you have your coat and shoes on? *pause for inevitable answer* Well, get them on now! It’s almost time to go—we’re going to be late! Hurry up!”

Another five minutes later: “It’s time to go now, why do you not have your coat and shoes on! Now we’ll be late—you are going to be tardy to school, your teachers will wonder where you are, you won’t know how to do your schoolwork, you’ll cause a distraction to the kid next to you who will get so thrown off that he will go down a lifelong path into slackerdom instead of inventing a power plant that turns shed cat hair into energy (enough to power three continents), which would stabilize world markets and produce enough funds to set up a non-profit organization to feed all the homeless in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico and give them jobs in said power plant. Why don’t you listen to me?”

The last is, of course, a rhetorical question that is less a question and more of a statement of exasperation. It is usually followed by one of two responses:

a) “we didn’t hear you” or
b) “so-and-so didn’t do it yet”

After hearing this for the 9-billionth time (there I go again), I am usually looking for the nearest pointy object to jam into my eye balls.

I knew the overemphasizing was becoming a problem in our household when my 5 year-old son has told my wife that he doesn’t move until someone yells that we are late. That’s the key word that tells him it's time to move! It drives me crazy, but I know I am partially to blame. When everything is critical, do-or-die, now-or-never—the hype becomes meaningless.

We see it all over our culture. There is so much demand for our attention with advertising, 24-hour news, “must see” TV, on and on. Even PBS keeps telling my kids to visit their “local library today!” It’s just too much!

The result is that we find it hard to get excited about anything. We look for some sort of sign of whether this is really true or not, but we tend to either dismantle it thoroughly or dismiss it all together. We get cynical and distrustful.

If we aren’t careful we treat God the same way, but God is not some advertiser trying to get you to buy a cheap food dehydrator or even some dad trying to get his kids to school. As a means of encouragement, don’t let that cynicism creep into your faith and walk with God. If you already have, repent and choose to walk differently. God has spoken that this is a new season, a season of revelation.

He wants to show us great things, but we have to believe and step out in trust. God is not an overemphasizer, trying to hype us up and talk us into something. He’s patient, kind, and waiting for us to respond.

Now it's your turn—when have you been stung by the hype bug? Have you become cynical in general? Are you an overemphasizer with your family, friends, etc? You know confession is good for you and admitting the problem is the first step to recovery. Free yourself in the comments!