Watch Out for Slop!

“Gardyloo!” was a cry used in medieval Scotland (and on into modern times). The expression was derived from French words meaning “beware of the water.” When tenants on upper floors were about to dump slop/waste/“chamber pots” out of their windows and onto the street, they shouted this warning. Anyone who happened to be below could, hopefully, dash out of the way.

That expression (which I’d just learned) popped to mind when I saw the photo you see here (taken at an antique mall): an enamel, lidded bucket beside some food-related items. As a child in the early 1950s, my family had an outdoor toilet, “the outhouse.” But indoors we did have a red-and-white bucket identical to this one for emergency and nighttime use. Grandma called it the slop bucket/slop jar. Given my childhood “chamber pot” memories, I’d have trouble displaying a bucket like this in my kitchen!

In the category of spiritual teaching being tossed in our direction… well, consider statements like these:

• “You don’t have God in you. You are one.” (Kenneth Copeland)
• “As an unmarried male, I can make little sense of my state unless I find some way to awaken and love my own inner feminine soul.” (Richard Rohr)
• “This new birth will cut through all cultures and all religions and indeed will draw forth the wisdom common to all vital mystical traditions in a global religious awakening.” (Matthew Fox)
• “I love all religions.” (Mother Teresa)
• “I let go of the notion that the Bible is a divine product… with divine authority.” (Marcus Borg)
• “In the emerging culture, darkness represents spirituality. We see this in Buddhist temples, as well as Catholic and Orthodox churches. Darkness communicates that something serious is happening.” (Dan Kimball)
• “There are higher sources of help you can call on. Angels, beings of light and Reiki spirit guides as well as your own enlightened self are available to help you.” (K. Reddy)
• “God’s first language is silence; everything else is a poor translation.” (Thomas Keating)
• “Money is a living entity and responds to energy, including yours.” (Suze Orman)
• “Do not make the pathetic error of ‘clinging to the old rugged cross.’” (A Course in Miracles)
• “The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” (Dalai Lama)

What if, anytime we recognized/sensed theological slop coming at us, we sounded a warning cry like folks did with “Gardyloo!” Then others nearby could join us in running away from that and straight to the Lord’s Word.

The Lord, the source of living water (not waste!), said, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:38). How sad to recall what the Lord said of ancient Israel: “My people… have forsaken me, the spring of living water” (Jeremiah 2:13). We hear believers today say that their spiritual lives are “dry.” Maybe it’s because the impure stuff they don’t run from creates ever-increasing spiritual thirst. We need the real thing: the Lord and his Word. Jesus said, “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst” (John 4:14).

Further fine-tune your “gardyloo awareness” with this “Cracks in Our Spiritual Foundation?” quiz.