"ERRORS AND OMISSIONS"

The cartoon character Popeye is famous for eating spinach. Whenever he breaks open a can of spinach and eats it he gains enormous strength. Popeye was employed by the US Government during World War II to promote the idea of eating spinach. Meat was a rarity during war, but spinach appeared to be a great substitute. In the 1890’s German scientists had shown that spinach contains the same amount of iron as meat. And iron of course is one of the essential vitamins in building strength.

However, the facts were wrong. The German researchers did prove that spinach contains iron, but when they wrote down their results they put the decimal point in the wrong place. They overestimated the amount of iron in spinach by a factor of 10! Unfortunately, the correction didn’t get across the ocean until after WW II.

This incident shows how easily false ideas can quickly become accepted truth. Take for example,

Sarah, the church gossip and self-appointed arbiter of the church's morals who kept sticking her nose into other people's business. Several residents were unappreciative of her activities, but feared her enough to maintain their silence.

She made a mistake, however, when she accused George, a new member, of being an alcoholic after she saw his pickup truck parked in front of the town's only bar one afternoon. She commented to George and others that everyone seeing it there would know what he was doing in the bar.

George, a man of few words, stared at her for a moment and just walked away. He didn't explain, defend, or deny. He said nothing. Later that evening, George quietly parked his pickup in front of Sarah's house.

And left it there all night.

Both the "error" in calculations by the German scientists and "omission" of facts in Sarah's gossip by actually seeing George in the bar misled countless people. While the "error" was unintentional and the "omission" was intentional, the end result was the same in misleading people.

There is little question about the intentions of Sarah who was known to gossip twenty words a second with gusts to fifty. Listening to Sarah's bogus comment about George in the bar misled countless people just as the wrong decimal point by scientists misled people about the true benefits of spinach.

One could argue the "error" caused no harm and the "omission" of fact slandered a fellow church member. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of downsides to eating spinach, so one could argue the "error" caused no harm while the intentional "omission" of facts mislabeled a fellow church member as a lush. However, I submit, as one who detests spinach, there was immense harm to millions of kids forced to wolf down spinach or face a leather belt.

It’s not uncommon in the area of Christian belief for Christians to quickly give unquestionable status to beliefs that may in fact have questionable origins. We should never be afraid to go back and ask why it is that we hold a particular belief or a particular interpretation of the bible. In fact, God teaches us to "test everything." (1 Thessalonians 5:21)

While our questioning may prove we got it right, or it may show we didn’t, we are instructed by the Lord to test and question so we can discern the will of God as well as what is good and acceptable. (Romans 12:2)

Some Christians walk around waiting for God to toss a lightning bolt their way when they have doubts or begin to question sermons, teachings or tenets. However, stop worrying and understand God's Word contains numerous doubters, cynics and questioners. The names are A-List Christians who wrestled with doubts and questions. Job, Joseph, Habakkuk, Abraham, Sarah, Gideon, Moses, Peter and Thomas. Each of these doubter-saints teach us how we can question our beliefs and use our doubts to become better Christians while getting closer to God.

Forgiving Father, thank You for teaching us to test everything. Thank You for understanding our carnal nature wants to sin and our human mind wrestles with doubt. Forgive us when we encounter sin and doubt. Guide us to find the answers to our questions and doubt so we can become better believers. Grant us the discernment to rebel when our minds are trying mislead us about You or our faith and remind us the best remedy is "A Little More Jesus."