People with Chips

People who have a "chip on the shoulder" annoy me. They're not much fun to hang with. Every encounter seems to be problematic. You can easily spot a person with a chip. They're the ones who are easily offended; hypersensitive; defensive and judgmental.

They seem angry most of the time and they have this certain condescending "air of superiority" attitude over you. A lot of people with chips are obsessed with politics-Left and Right. They bottom feed on the ideological extremes. I know, I know, not all those who are politically involved have chips. I mean, after all, "Some of my best friends are 'political junkies'" on both sides.

I'm talking about folks like "the purveyors of political correctness" now they have big chips. They possess this "vulgar urge" to make moral pronouncements and assign evil intentions to those who disagree with them. I'm also talking about the people with chips in our churches that are quick to moralize and bring condemnation on the "spiritual inferior." For these people, I have nothing but disdain for.

But most people with chips are deeply insecure and they find some meaning from their "chip"-I did. I walked around for years with a chip on my shoulder. I lashed out on a world that I thought had "wronged me." I was angry and had no direction-until I turned 19. That's when a new life began-I accepted Jesus into my life.

I want to say my chip miraculously fell off right then-but it didn't. Something did happen though. I began to see the chip as an open wound that had yet to heal. It appeared the further I walked along my faith journey, God's grace was becoming larger and my chip was becoming smaller. It's not over but there are signs of "chip shrinkage."

One sign is my priorities have changed-like the relevance of politics in my life. I was once a "winger" and politics and my faith became blurred. After a while I began to realize politics was informing my faith and not the other way around. Today one of the best compliments I could receive from someone would be for them to say "I don't know much about his politics, but I know he's a man of God."

When chips become smaller-life becomes larger. There is a certain freedom you feel when your chip is no longer weighing you down.