Articles
Excuse Me???
The following school excuse notes are purportedly genuine. You know, it wouldn’t surprise me even the least bit to find out that some of these “excuse writers” just might've missed more than a day or two of school themselves.
→ My son is under a doctor’s care and should not take P.E. today. Please execute him.
→ Please excuse Lisa for being absent. She was sick, and I had her shot.
→ Dear School: Please ekscuse John being absent on Jan. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, and also 33.
→ Please excuse Roland from P.E. for a few days. Yesterday he fell out of a tree and misplaced his hip.
→ John has been absent because he had two teeth taken out of his face.
→ Megan could not come to school today because she has been bothered by very close veins.
→ Sally won’t be in school a week from Friday. We have to attend her funeral.
→ I kept Billie home because she had to go Christmas shopping because I don’t know what size she wears.
→ Please excuse Jennifer for missing school yesterday. We forgot to get the Sunday paper off the porch, and when we found it Monday, we thought it was Sunday.
→ Please excuse my son’s tardiness. I forgot to wake him up and I did not find him till I started making the beds.
It’s been said that an excuse is really just, “the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.”. I’ll surely go along with that “skin of a reason” part but, since I’m not ready nor prone to believe that as Christians we’re ready-set-go to lie, it might be better to say that an excuse is sometimes, “stuffed with a sense of self-centered, self-delusional, self-justification”. One of the drawbacks for elders, preachers and Bible class teachers is the inevitability of hearing some of the reasons (i.e. excuses) folks give for failing to meet the commitment of assembling for church services. I’m not so sure whether it’s the reasonitself that is so bothersome as it is the expectation of others to understand that the Lord understands that sleeping in, entertaining company, ballgames, school functions, family reunions, vacations, and such are perfectly good (not to mention understandable) reasons to miss, be late for, and/or leave early the assemblies of the church. You know maybe it’s just me, but I’ve a bit of difficulty reconciling “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33 NASB) with the choices Christians occasionally make. Far be it though for me to presume what the Lord understands: Better for Him to state it. Consider, if you will, this parable of our Lord's.
Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’ Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.” (Luke 14:16-24 NKJV)
Problem ends up being, the Lord really does understand. He understands that, long before any of us were around, people who should’ve known better made wrong choices and offered up what might’ve seemed to them good reasons for doing so. He didn’t like it any better then than He does now.
And yes, I know the above verses aren’t dealing with not showing up (late or otherwise) for church services. They are, however, dealing with an attitude or habit of wanting to hand out excuses for not doing what’s reasonably expected of us. I purely don’t see how the two can be logically separated.
In articles such as this, it’s right about here where you sometimes see written something such as: “But we’re all sinners. None of us are perfect. I’m not. You’re not”. I know that’s occasionally offered as a hand to help lift up someone that the writer has just knocked down, but somehow it seems that it would come off here as another one of those reasons that gives us comfort at times when maybe it oughtn’t.
Shouldn’t we just own up to our faults and say, “I’m going to do better.”
Not, “Maybe I can do better” or “I’ll try to do better” or “I should do better” or “I think can do better”. Those statements have built in reasons for failure.
“I’m going to do better”. No excuses. No reasons. You have to admit, that’s got sort of a refreshing ring to it.
“I was glad when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the LORD.” (Psalm 122:1 NASB)
Amen?
~Teddy Horton
