July 04, 2006

It Must Be a Guy Thing

Somewhere in my husband’s ancestry the men in the family made great sport of sneaking up on one another to give the other guy a ‘Wet Willie’. Simply put, a ‘Wet Willie’ is wetting the tip of an index finger in your mouth and then sticking it in the ear of an unsuspecting target. At various times I’ve witnessed four generations of men and boys chase each other around the house with fingers in their mouths and hands over their ears yelling, “Wet Willie, No! Stop! Oh gross…I’ll get even with you!” The book of Mark gives us an account of people bringing a deaf and mute man to Jesus and begging Him to place His hand on the man. Taking the man aside, Jesus puts His fingers in the man’s ears and his ears are opened. I’ve noticed in the church there are times when we have deaf ears to what another person is saying. For whatever reason, we seem to be listening, but not hearing. During those times of miscommunication I like to see one of the Lord’s representatives running around yelling ‘Wet Willie’…minus the wet, of course!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gail;
----It is a guy thing. We don't like other people putting their fingers in our ears. Generally, if someone else does put their fingers in our ears we try to listen all the more intently to make sure we hear what they don't want us to hear. But to put our own fingers in our own ears is a sacred right to guys, and we have many ways of doing that. It is very valuable for a guy to learn what his own ways of putting his own fingers in his own ears are, because listening is of paramount importance to agreeing with one another, and agreeing with one another is a scriptural imperative. But when someone else tries to put their finger in your ear, the only things you can do are run, and listen intently.

Anonymous said...

Gail;
----This morning I noticed an interesting example of the whole wet willy game played the night of June 28. The elders read to me Acts 20:28, surely feeling vindicated by the whole context of the verse, but of course verse 29, especially. In that verse Paul warns the Ephesians to be wary of wolves that would rise up among them, which to them, I am. Seeing things diferently, though, I do not hear that verse of the context as much as I hear verses 26 and 27 where Paul tells the Ephesians that their blood was off his shoulders because he did not shrink from declaring to them the whole counsel of God. And this whole wet willy game was played without a word! A guy thing to the max!