Granny's Bra

Heads turned when my grandmother walked in the room for breakfast. Or so I was told. Decades would pass before I was born. My father and his brother were young teenage punks at this particular time. And being young teenage punks, they kept needling their parents. Smart alecks, sneaky, and scantily clad for breakfast. Their breakfast attire consisted of boxer shorts and undershirts.


Showing up for breakfast without being fully dressed and ready for the day grated on their parents. It was their father who pleasantly asked the boys to not come into the kitchen in their underwear. They continued showing up in their underwear. Their father strongly urged the boys to get ready first, then come down for breakfast. They continued showing up in their underwear. Their father passionately implored the boys to let their underwear live up to its name. They continued showing up with their underwear as their outerwear.

Nothing worked. Nothing, at least, until my grandmother arrived late for breakfast that morning. She strode into the room and went about her normal routine. Yet, instead of hearing the usual clinking silverware, rustling newspapers and discussions about the day ahead, she moved around in thick silence. The boys and her husband stared at her. I’m sure one of them froze with a fork halfway up to an open mouth. She eventually came to the head of the table and faced them all . . .

In her bra.

My grandfather reportedly erupted like Vesuvius, chasing the boys and my grandmother out of the kitchen with a high volume, red-faced berating. Everyone showed up for breakfast fully clothed forever more.

At the end of 1 Corinthians 4, Paul vents about the arrogance of some of the church members, and the trouble it is causing. He challenges them, and warns them that he is coming to find out if they are all just talk, or whether they have some real God-given power. And he offers them a choice for this confrontation: “What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love and with a gentle spirit?” (1 Cor. 4:21). There will still be confrontation. The results will probably be the same. But the discussion can either be harsh or mild.

When confronting their boys about their choice of breakfast attire, both of my grandparents chose their own way to confront their boys. Although he tried to be gentle at first, my grandfather used words of escalating harshness. My grandmother never said a word, which could have been misinterpreted as being complacent, but delicately used her delicates to deliver her point. And which method got results, the whip or the gentle spirit?

Which method will get us results next time we need to confront someone?

Which method would we want someone to confront us with?

Cushion

It seems counterintuitive. More cushioning should make for a softer landing. But as Christopher McDougall cites in his book Born To Run, that’s not always true.

In a series of tests on gymnasts, researchers at McGill University discovered that the athletes actually landed harder and with more force as the landing mats got thicker. “Instinctively, the gymnasts were searching for stability,” and landed harder to “ensure balance,” writes McDougall.

In a different study at the University of Oregon, researchers found that as running shoes got older and worn out, “the runners feet stabilized and became less wobbly.” When the runner used highly cushioned shoes, “their feet tried to push through the padding in search of a hard, stable platform.”

So both studies described by McDougall arrived at the same strange conclusion: More cushioning actually means less stability.

Surprising?

Not if you listen to Jesus. He consistently tells us to give up what we think will help stabilize our lives, and lean instead on something that doesn’t move - Him. Like in His instructions before sending out the disciples, Jesus tells them to forget about packing, and says “Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff” (Matthew 10:9-10). He praised and held up a poor widow as an example of ultimate faith and trust after she left herself with seemingly nothing because she gave “all she had to live on” to God (Luke 21:4). Jesus counterintuitively told a wealthy man to sell everything because there was still something he lacked (Mark 10:21).

Now, finish this sentence: “If I could just have _________, I’d be better off.” Our answers (our honest answers) will indicate what we think will provide the most comfort and stability to our lives. More money in the bank. Different job. Bigger house. Different neighborhood. More authority. More friends on Facebook. More real friends. Different family members. But after we get that, what will we need to fill in the next blank?

Jesus is saying, “Forget what you have and what you think you need for comfort and peace of mind. I’ll take care of you. What you think you need is providing too much cushioning between you and me, and is actually destabilizing your life.”