Picture a quiet afternoon at a wonderful place to eat, lets say Chick-fil-A. . . =) Now its the last day of school, so there are LOTS of kids and they are excited and hyper! Thankfully the play area drowns out the volume so other customers can enjoy some great music while they eat.
Highschoolers do some pretty crazy things, i've been there, and i remember doing stuff just because i could- but just because you could to do something, doesn't mean you should. Well on this such afternoon, a group of recently dismissed for the summer students decided to have some fun, that should have stopped long before it did.
Dressed in a full-body gorilla costume, a H.S. student came in to Chick-fil-A, walked around to all his friends and then headed to the play area.
The dressing up completely is dangerous anyways due to his identity being covered. If he was a masked-murderer, he picked a good mask to use, but it was just a kid going for a few good laughs, so i couldn't do much about that.
Before i could finish wiping down the table i was working on my manager was back at the play area door asking him to leave. There are safety regulations, weight limits, and now 20 screaming terrified kids clutching to their mothers in sheer fear.
He finally went to his car and removed his get-up and apologized to a few of the kids that were still crying. . . but it got me thinking.
There are a lot of times that we wear masks. Never is is a good time to do so- i am talking about the masks that hide who you are, not the ones that offer protection, those are good to wear in the elements.
No, there is never a good reason to hide who you are or make excuse for something you are doing. For whatever reason it got me to thinking about the passage in Matthew 18, where Jesus is talking about causing others to stumble. If you are masked, you are not truly being yourself, or the person God has created you to be. If that is ever the case, you are in grave danger of causing someone to stumble. This is what Jesus said, "If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!" (vs. 6-7)
When we were in Georgia, i saw a millstone, and well i would NOT want to have this as 'bling'
Jesus knew what He was saying, and the gravity of this situation hit hard when i realized that i should live my life in a way that would never cause anyone- much less my younger brothers and sisters in Christ, to stumble.
