My oldest daughter told me about this T-shirt you can buy and the graphic on the front says, “I might be laid-back, but I can lean forward real quick.”

There are people in this world that are in constant laid-back mode. I have always envied these types of people because I wish I was that way, but I’m not. Like many of us, there is a tolerance level for unimportant things but there is a line. For me, that line is my family, my God and my country.

Like senator John Kennedy from Louisiana says, “you can’t fix stupid.” I read the news and see what many people spout off, and I can still remain laid-back, but when it is my wife or my children, I can lean forward real quick. My deceased father in-law, Max Phillips, once told me, “I am a Christian, but I am not a doormat.” I think I heard this the first time I took his 11^th grade daughter on a date. Ha. He left zero doubt in mind, that if I hurt his baby, I might no longer be among the living.

As Christians, we are the light in the world, but we are not milk-toast pushovers. We stand up and are accounted for when it matters. You see these paintings in some churches that depict Jesus as a little frail, homely looking man. He was not. He was a carpenter and when he spoke, everything and everyone stopped to hear what he said. That day he threw the money changers out of the temple, notice, it didn’t say, the money changers fought him. No-sir, they knew better than challenging him.

Jesus was a man’s man, and even sometimes called people hypocrites, serpents, liars and brood of vipers. Yes-siree, Jesus himself was laid-back, compassionate and gentle but he could lean forward real quick. KT