Saturday, July 12, 2008

A Redneck Joke with a Lesson

There’s another favorite redneck joke of mine that goes as follows:

Cyril wasn’t known for being the brightest boy in town. Darryl decided to try to help his little brother one day to become smarter so he gave him a handful of small brown things.

"These are smart pills, runt. Now, eat ‘em up." Cyril ate ‘em up. "Now I’m gonna give you some more tomorrow, and keep givin’ you some every day. You gotta take ‘em a while ‘fore you start feelin’ smarter."

Darryl gave his little brother Cyril some more of the smart pills every day, doubling the dosage each time. Cyril would chew his way through patiently each time, but as time went on, he started to dislike the bad taste in his mouth after he’d eaten them. He told his brother about the bad taste, but Darryl always said, "That’s in your head, boy. These are smart pills. Now keep eatin’ ‘em, and one day you’ll git smart!"

So Cyril kept doing his darndest to eat every single pill he was given. His chewing became slower and slower as his facial expression revealed more and more how distasteful he found the pills. His stomach churned after he ate them and he wondered why he wasn’t getting any smarter, just feeling frustrated at how dumb he still felt and queasy besides. Finally one day when Darryl tried to give Cyril his daily dose, Cyril declared, "Maaaan, these here smart pills taste like goat turds! I ain’t eatin’ no more of these thangs!"

Darryl heartily thumped his brother on the back as he declared gleefully, "NOW you’re gettin’ smarter, little brother, NOW you’re gettin’ smarter!"

***

Funny and crass though this old joke is, there are some ironic parallels I see in this to my experience in institutional church. I also ‘ate’ whatever I was given. I was told if I came often enough and ‘ate’ enough of what they served up, I’d sooner or later turn into a model Christian.

While my experience wasn’t as much of a total scam as poor Cyril’s, I will say that I feel like I ate enough ‘turds’ at institutional church that it was making me sick both spiritually and emotionally. When I shared these feelings with other members or leaders, they told me it must be because of doubt, unbelief, unconfessed sin, etc. and I needed to have a ‘deliverance’ of some sort. I should read this book or do that Bible study, come to church more often, and find an accountability partner. If I kept eating their food, sooner or later it was bound to do the job they promised it would.

Finally we walked out. It wasn’t working. I had realized, "This is not doing what they said it would do. I feel worse instead of better. I just can’t do it anymore." I don’t think Father would ever laugh at me, but perhaps he was a bit like Darryl in saying, "Now you’re getting somewhere, my daughter, now you’re getting somewhere."

3 comments:

Aida said...

Amy, you are so funny but you've really given a clear picture of a truth. We really have been fed a lot of bad tasting stuff but we just swallowed it because we were told this was what we were supposed to do.

Great analogy! I don't think I'll forget this one.

SerenityNow said...

Amy-I followed your post on lifestreamjourney board to your blog. I love your writing and your ideas!

I am also troubled about the hospitality thing, but in a different way. I am very private and love lots of time alone. The thought of having to spend more time with people than I already do on my job is exhausting to me.

That is one thing I didn't like about the IC. Always pushing us to join groups and fellowship.

My calling is as an intercessor and I was always being pushed to be in "prayer groups". I hate prayer groups-most of the time the people are praying to impress each other, not being still to hear what the Holy Spirit is leading them to pray-which if they prayed it there would probably not "go over" with the group anyway!

Sorry to get off track a bit. I just wanted to say Hi, and that I agree with the posts about "fellowship" and truly being in intimate fellowship with our Father.

Aida said...

Jan, I love your comments and can relate. I feel the same way about prayer groups. They bring out the phoniness in me. I find myself trying to be someone I'm not and "praying" to the others instead of to God.

I finally stopped going to them. Although I've been asked, I just say no and I haven't missed going. I've found that my conversations with Father are much more real now that I don't have an audience.