I remember that SMH acronym took me the longest to figure out back then because I always read it phonetically: ssmmmhh-- like a half sigh, half groan murmur. Not unlike the the letters psh! Believe it or not, my "version" of smh usually always fit the context.
Friend: Smh, all I can tell u is that teacher has a lot 2 learn...
Me: Ugh, sorry to hear that!
I was reading in Romans a passage that quite literately made me SMH:
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
How can they do that?? Give up the truth for a lie? Give up a relationship with God for a relationship with a clay statue!? How can we do that? How can we get so lost in being academically "wise" that we become fools? How can we serve man-made constructs like money and "celebrity" instead of the most majestic King?
SMH. I'LL TELL YOU HOW. Sometimes you don't realize how good you've got it 'til it's gone.
"You mean to tell me he cheated on me... with that horseface girl?"
This was one of the saddest conversations I ever witnessed outside a bar downtown. A very pretty girl was being told the ugly truth by a girlfriend. No other way I can describe the moment other than witnessing straight-up heartbreak. I know I'm on the outside looking in, but I heard enough to know the guy was a total d-bag. I'm definitely not saying looks are everything, but it just seems like a sad state of affairs when you're in a relationship with Beyonce for land's sake and that still ain't enough.
Anyway all this to say, how MUCH MORE heartbreaking and unbelievable to forget the God of the universe that loves you immensely. Trading a beautiful relationship with God for a piece of trash. Romans 1 seems pretty appros these days with all that's in the news. People getting all up in arms and crusading about Target's restroom policy... and forgetting the GOD that has beautifully made us, and moreover MADE US the gender we are supposed to be! We (myself included) are getting distracted with the side issues and missing the point!
This was Paul's address to the Greeks at Athens to put things back in perspective:
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said,“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
God, I'm so thankful for what an awesome God you are and that you're real and you love me. This blows my mind. ♥
Smh, well I don't know exactly how that happened... but that's got to be the most pop-culture Bible devotional ever written. Can I get an amen re-tweet up in here? ;)
Emoji Yikes face.
