Buffalo

Americans. You have to love them. God says.

Recently I watched a video that showed how just using the word buffalo can in itself make a perfectly legitimate sentence.

This baffled me, until I was informed in said video that the word buffalo isn’t just a noun and an adjective, but it is also a verb! Apparently the verb buffalo means to puzzle, baffle, confuse or mystified. It can also mean to be bullied.

I had a conversation with a friend about some things in church that can be said to really buffalo me.

It buffaloes me how the simple way church was set up by Jesus has been turned in some cases into a business franchise. A head office decrees how each franchise should be branded. Pastors and deacons are really managers and supervisors. Members are active consumers who determine the success of the product, and strategies and schemes are devised to improve the number of consumers of the product.

It buffaloes me how we can read Jesus talking so much about His followers as family, and how we neglect that for a nominal approach to relationships thinking that weekly gatherings to peruse the back of some people’s heads will suffice.

It buffaloes me the writer of Hebrews encourages us to encourage each other every day as long as it’s called today and we can Facebook, tweet, text, message so many things that do anything but encourage.

It buffaloes me how we take simple things and make it more complex than it was ever intended to be. Whilst we do that the beauty of something complex is neglected because we want something simple.

These things buffalo me, but I am glad that God is not buffaloed by them. I am glad that He will erase everything that buffalos to leave His holiness and righteousness fully in operation in all things.

What buffaloes you?

For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden