My art teacher in high school was a hoot and a half. She was sweet and so funny. A little out there, at times. But she had phrases that stuck with us and bore repeating. She had a saying about people who were late to class or acted out of line. She would ask, “Have you been out, smoking that wacky weed?”
“Smoking that wacky weed” became a catchphrase for kids in my high school. If someone did something moronic or said something absurd, one of their friends would ask them, “Have you been out, smoking that wacky weed?” Wacky weed became a euphemism for craziness.
As I look around our country today, I can’t help but wonder if people are not just out smoking wacky weed, but maybe they are ingesting it, rapidly? There does not seem to be any other explanation for the wackiness, if you will.
I was reading 2 Timothy 3:1-9 earlier and thought, "Did Paul have a glimpse into the year 2020, and this was why he wrote that to Timothy?”
It is unreal how significant this passage is, today:
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God - having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth - men of depraved minds, who as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far, because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.” - 2 Timothy 3:1-9 (NIV)
Sometimes the craziness is just too much to absorb. Our minds cannot quite grasp the lengths some people will go, for power.
Christians, we do not need to seek power in any other form than God. Our strength and our “power” needs to only come from Jesus … not from positions, fame or notoriety. If we are seeking power, we are not seeking Biblical truth. We are to reflect Jesus, not the world. And if we are hanging out with people who are not reflecting God’s truth … maybe we need to heed the warning from Paul and have nothing to do with them.
Let’s not give non-Believers reason to ask us, “Have you been out smoking that wacky weed?” Let’s not become lovers of ourselves, more than we love Jesus and others.
As Christians, we do not need to seek power. We already have it, through Jesus!
Maybe as a reminder of what not to be, I’ll just keep reading Paul’s advice above. Feel free to do the same and share with friends. Our perspective needs to be reflecting God. Not anyone or anything else.