Bonnie Landry

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sentence fragments

I continue to unpack Saint Paul's letter to the Colossians in a very not-very-scholarly way.

So, what he says next, is like, "Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body.


And be thankful."

The thing I like about Paul is that he writes in sentence fragments.  Like me.  And he's a great saint.  So  there's hope.  For me.

I write in sentence fragments to make a point.  Not because I'm lazy.  Truth to tell, it is actually more difficult to write in sentence fragments because you have to punctuate and capitalize more frequently.

But anyway.  Note Paul's well placed sentence fragment:  And be thankful.

It's very important.  I can tell, because it is a fragment, and Paul is actually employing a very clever grammatical error for the purpose of catching our attention.

AND BE THANKFUL.  You Colossians.  You mammals.  Paul actually reads inside my brain most of the time, because I am not a very thankful person.  Especially when I'm not.

So in a nutshell, once again, Paul says, "If people (read: your children, husband, neighbour, mother in law, anybody) are bothering you, just man up.  You are a Christian and you are supposed to see Christ in others.  So get to it.  And be thankful.  Be thankful that you have a God who is so merciful.  And be thankful that you can't hear everything other people are thinking about you.  Be a Christian on the outside.  And oh, guess what.  Be one on the inside, too."

Remember that "peace of Christ rule in your heart" thingy?  Yeah.  That's what I'm talkin' bout.  

Feb 28, 2014