PURPLE EARPLUGS: THE
CONSTRUCTION WORKER’S GUIDE TO KEEPING THE FAITH
Everybody was in a frenzy
to get all thirteen large cement pieces loaded on the truck. The noise level
escalated and I was trying to finish my paperwork in the same room. Finally, I
couldn’t take it anymore and went to the locker with the earplugs and grabbed
the purple ones. I’d never tried them before. They were amazing! In just a
couple seconds all the voices disappeared. It was great.
What do I hear, see and
say? I remember a picture of three monkeys, the first covered his ears, the
second, his eyes and the third, his mouth. It was labeled, HEAR NO EVIL, SEE NO
EVIL, SPEAK NO EVIL. I quickly drew my own version for painters like myself.
In the construction
industry, it can get pretty uproarious and sometimes I just don’t want to
participate. Usually it’s good to look someone directly in the eyes when
they’re speaking, but if they’re speaking nonsense or garbage, instead of
trying to correct them (which really isn’t my job), I just look away and they
hardly even notice.
I’m not antisocial, but I
am responsible to God and the Lord Jesus Christ to do my best to not get
wrapped up with the things of the world. I have to keep myself somewhat apart
from all the craziness.
God says something about
this right in the beginning of the Bible: “And God blessed the seventh day, and
sanctified it: because that in it he had rested” (Gen. 2:3). The word
sanctified is the Hebrew word “qadash”
which means “to be set apart.” The only way to have true rest in our current
world is to be set apart unto God. Keeping watch over what comes into my ears,
into my eyes and out of my mouth helps us do this.
Second Timothy 2:21 tells
us that if a person purges himself from those things that are dishonorable, “he
shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and
prepared unto every good work.” That’s what true Christians really want.
David spoke these words,
“Turn my eyes away from vanity [all those wordly, meaningless things that
distract—let Your priorities by mine], and restore me [with renewed energy] in
Your ways” (Ps. 119:37).
In Isaiah 33:15, Isaiah
gives several details about walking uprightly. He teaches that a person should
make the effort to speak no evil, hear no evil and see no evil. He is “walking righteously, and speaking uprightly; he
is despising the gain of oppressions, shaking his hands from holding bribes, stopping his ears from hearing of blood, and
shutting his eyes from
seeing evil.”
Basically, the Lord wants
us to strive to be holy in all aspects of our lives. That’s why He inspired
Paul to write First Corinthians 3:16, “Know ye
not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth [is
dwelling] in you?”
And in
Romans 12:1-2 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is
your reasonable service. And be not conformed to
this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may
prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
Though my cartoon above is for painters in the construction
industry, the principles are the same for all Christians. It’s our
responsibility to do our best in the natural, but beyond that, it’s our
privilege to ask the Lord to help us, because we can’t do it without Him.
Love, Carolyn
MY NEW BOOK:
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