{"id":4677,"date":"2025-06-05T08:52:07","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T12:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4677"},"modified":"2025-06-05T08:52:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T12:52:07","slug":"being-right-and-being-faithful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/05\/being-right-and-being-faithful\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Right and Being Faithful"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

When the boogeyman goes to sleep at night, he checks under his bed for Chuck Norris<\/em>.

That\u2019s one of hundreds of so-called Chuck Norris \u201cfacts\u201d that for the past 20 years have fed a logic-defying cultural phenomenon and Internet craze.\u00a0

In 2005, talk show host Conan O\u2019Brien began to tell jokes about the martial arts fighter and actor whose credentials include the TV series \u201cWalker, Texas Ranger,\u201d<\/em> and a host of B movies in which Norris basically defeats entire armies by himself.

Somehow the jokes took off.\u00a0The satirical \u201cfacts\u201d about Norris\u2019 toughness and masculinity propelled him to global superstardom.\u00a0Here\u2019s a sampling:

There\u2019s no such thing as global warming. Chuck Norris was cold, so he turned up the sun.

When Chuck Norris crosses the street, the cars look both ways.

When an episode of \u201cWalker, Texas Ranger,\u201d aired in France, the French surrendered to Chuck Norris, just to be on the safe side.

On Valentine\u2019s Day, Chuck Norris gives his wife a still-beating heart of one of his enemies.

The flu has to get Chuck Norris shots every year.

Chuck Norris is why Waldo is hiding.

When Chuck Norris plays Monopoly, it affects the world economy.

Chuck Norris sleeps with a pillow under his gun.

According to Einstein\u2019s Theory of Relativity, Chuck Norris can actually roundhouse kick you yesterday.

The actor himself, who is enthusiastic about his faith, has maintained a sense of humor about his online cult hero status.\u00a0He even penned The Official Chuck Norris Fact Book<\/em>, which features 101 of his favorite quips. Which one does he like the most?\u00a0People wanted to add Chuck Norris to Mount Rushmore, but the granite wasn\u2019t tough enough for his beard.<\/em>

The book includes a number of real-life stories, including the time he was asked by a friend to appear in court as an expert witness.

Norris\u2019 friend was a lawyer who was defending a man who was pleading self-defense because he had shot someone. The victim was a black belt in karate, and the accused considered the second man a \u201cdeadly weapon.\u201d Chuck, at that time, was a world champion in competitive martial arts. Would he be willing help validate the defendant\u2019s claim?\u00a0

After answering his friend\u2019s cordial questions from the witness stand, Norris was cross-examined by the assistant district attorney.

The DA strode up and asked, \u201cDo you expect the court to believe that a black belt in karate would have a chance against a man with a gun?\u201d

\u201cIt\u2019s possible,\u201d said Norris, \u201cdepending on the distance.\u201d

\u201cHow about 10 feet?\u201d said the DA. Chuck replied, \u201cIf the gun wasn\u2019t already cocked and aimed, I believe it is possible.\u201d

That was exactly what the DA hoped to hear. Now he would humiliate Norris and scuttle the defendant\u2019s case. He ordered Norris to leave the witness box and stand near the jury. Then he asked the bailiff to remove the cartridges from his gun and hand him the empty weapon. The DA made a show of pacing off 10 feet, then said to Chuck, \u201cI want you to stop me before I can cock and fire this gun.\u201d

Norris thought to himself, \u201cWhat have I gotten myself into?\u201d\u00a0

The DA held the gun at his side. He instructed the bailiff to give a verbal command. \u201cGo!\u201d shouted the bailiff. Norris recounts, \u201cBefore the DA could cock the gun, I had my foot planted on his chest. I didn\u2019t follow through with my kick because I didn\u2019t want to hurt him.\u201d

The assistant district attorney was stunned, and not a little angry. \u201cMy thumb slipped!\u201d he announced. He insisted on a second attempt. The outcome was identical \u2013 a foot on his chest before he could cock the gun.

That night Norris shared dinner with his lawyer friend, who couldn\u2019t stop laughing. His friend also made this telling observation: \u201cThe DA made a big mistake by asking a question to which he didn\u2019t know the answer.\u201d

It\u2019s a good thing none of us have ever done that. And it\u2019s a good thing none of us have ever attended a church that tried to provide answers to every conceivable question and solutions to every imaginable conundrum, even though we often have no idea what we\u2019re talking about.

It may come as a surprise to those of us on the inside, but no one really wants to join the Church That Thinks It\u2019s Right About Everything.

A little too frequently, Christians come across as people who can be relied upon to tell you what to think, how to vote, and whom to fear \u2013 that is, \u201cif you really want to please God.\u201d Such defiant certainties can end up becoming unfortunate public controversies.

And that\u2019s a shame, for the simple reason that the Bible\u2019s expectations for what it means to follow Jesus aren\u2019t really controversial at all.\u00a0

At the end of his monumental, 889-page scholarly introduction to the New Testament, N.T. Wright suggests that what we have inherited is \u201ca new way of relating to one another, a way of kindness, a way that accepts the fact of anger but refuses to allow it to dictate the terms of engagement.\u201d\u00a0Since Jesus\u2019 death accomplished our forgiveness, we must pass that on to each other.\u00a0\u201cWe must become, must be known as, the people who don\u2019t hold grudges, who don\u2019t sulk.\u00a0We must be the people who know how to say \u2018Sorry,\u2019 and who know what to do when other people say it to us.\u201d

Can you imagine what it would be like if the first thing people associated with Christians was, \u201cOh, those are the people who don\u2019t sulk and whine\u201d?\u00a0

We are called to be the people who always show hospitality.\u00a0Who serve the poor.\u00a0Who give away money cheerfully. Who remember that in a God-supervised world, there are no grounds for feeling anxious.

God\u2019s directive is that we should be gracious with each other concerning issues that don\u2019t really matter.\u00a0We must stand up for those who have been unjustly treated. But never take private vengeance.\u00a0And always show compassion to those who are hurting.

It\u2019s actually rather straightforward to understand the kind of life to which we are called.\u00a0Powered by the indwelling gift of God\u2019s Spirit, we are to be the joyful, non-anxious, generous, patient, outward-focused, kind-hearted people in our families and communities.\u00a0

We will stand out, in other words, not because we are so miserably Right About Everything.

But simply because we love each other.\u00a0Including those who don\u2019t love us back.\u00a0

There\u2019s a world of difference between trying to be right and choosing to be faithful.

On what grounds can we enter into such a life?\u00a0

Well, it\u2019s not this: \u201cOn the seventh day God rested, and Chuck Norris took over.\u201d

We can all be glad that Chuck \u2013 just like the rest of us \u2013 is in sales, not management.
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here When the boogeyman goes to sleep at night, he checks under his bed for Chuck Norris. That\u2019s one of hundreds of so-called Chuck Norris \u201cfacts\u201d that for the past 20 years have fed a logic-defying cultural phenomenon and Internet craze.\u00a0 In 2005, talk show host Conan O\u2019Brien began to tell jokes… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4678,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[937,437],"class_list":["post-4677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-being-right","tag-faithfulness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4679,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4677\/revisions\/4679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}