Sometimes when someone says something, it means just that.  Nothing more, nothing less.

We all are guilty of reading between the lines and most of the time when people are being nice, there may, or may not be something between the lines.  

Or, if they are being evasive, there may or may not be something.

Is it our job to pick up on those subtle clues, or should we just read people as they speak?

I know my husband never bothers with “the between the lines”.

I’ll tell him what someone was saying, and he’ll say, “they didn’t say that”.

I’ll tell him, “no, they did not say it, but I knew what they were talking about.”

Jesus spoke in parables, and the disciples had to ask Him what He was saying.  (Must be a man thing when they can’t pick up on the subtleties.)

The Pharisee’s obviously seemed to know what Jesus was talking about because they were always mad after Jesus told a parable.  

We really should pay closer attention to what people say, or don’t say.

Jesus told this story (paraphrased) in Mark 12: 1-11 – “Then He began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, leased it to tenants and went to another country.  When the season came, he sent slaves to the tenants, to collect, but they seized them, and beat them, and killed most of them.  Finally, he sent them his son, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But they said ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him. They seized him and killed him.  What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.  The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”  

When they realized that He had told this parable against them, they wanted to arrest Him, but they feared the crowd.  So, they left Him and went away.

A lot of times when we hear something, we get it wrong; we get our feelings hurt and cause harm by saying something, or not saying something.

We need to learn to really listen, not wear our heart on our sleeve, read between the lines or not and pray that God will give us wisdom on what the truth is.  

Just because we are Christians doesn’t mean we shouldn’t speak up for our rights.  God appointed Abraham as a Judge over the Israelites to solve their differences.

Let’s just make sure we have our facts straight before we step out on a limb.  

 

Karen Y. Stevens is the founder of Orange County Christian Writers Guild