TILIKUM

Most of us haven’t had the opportunity to study Greek. We will acknowledge that we know the word ‘agape’ but we will emphatically deny that we know the word ‘pornos’ (but I digress). Here’s a word you probably don’t know. The word is ‘tilikum’. It means ‘friend’. All of us have friends and they’re pretty easy to spot. We hang around them. We text them. They pop up on our ‘facebook’ wall. Jesus in fact called us His friend (John 15:15). Unfortunately, in many of our lives, He’s not that easy to spot (but I digress again). We have good friends and bad friends. In tough times, our friends will rally around us and support us. But during day to day living, we just hang. And it is during this most common, sharing of lives, when our friends affect us both positively and negatively.

As parents, we concern ourselves with the friends our children have. To quote the great old Coasters song: “Tell your hoodlum friends outside, you ain’t got time to take no ride!” We try to put our children in the best schools, the best neighborhoods, and get them to church so that they surround themselves with positive influences so that their lives are filled with good ‘tilikum’.

As Christians we try to do the same. Some of that is out of our control for example, like the jobs we take or even where we can afford to live (but I digress for the last time). Some of the ‘things’ we surround ourselves with don’t start out as friends. In fact we know we “ain’t got time” and shouldn’t be taking a ride with them, but we figure we’re strong enough and hip enough (“your daddy’s hip he knows what cooks”) to handle it (wow, I’ve covered about four blog topics so far). But before long, we’re full blown ‘tilikum’ with them and these ‘things’ have become a part of our inner ‘tilikum’ circle and can really be a huge negative influence on our lives (finally I’m getting to the point).

Many of you may have figured out by now that ‘tilikum’ is not a Greek word at all (put the Strong’s down and step away from the Concordance) but is actually a Chinook word (Native American). And if you’re really up on your news stories, you’ll know it’s also the name of the Killer Whale that recently killed its trainer, Dawn Brancheau. Many of the more cynical among us has probably remarked, “There’s a reason they call them Killer Whales, people” and with a ‘that’s what you get’ attitude we watched the news stories in hopes of seeing the poor lady take her final swim. When we realized there was nothing to see, we switched channels. But let’s wade in a little deeper (pardon the pun).

There were some basic rules (commandments). One of them was you don’t get in the water and lay around with the 12,000 pound whales. (After all, “Where does a 6 ton whale sleep?”) No doubt, early in her career, Dawn followed the rules. I’m sure she was also very cautious and felt like she could “handle the truth” (or handle the girth). But in the end, her guard was relaxed, her diminutive body cuddled up next to this huge danger and without warning, according to some reports, Tilikum grabbed Dawn’s ponytail and drug her under the water.

Here’s my point and it’s pretty simple. Casual sin, habitual sin can easily become a friend. Familiar and comfortable…but still just as ‘killer’ as it was when we looked at it from the stands or were first introduced to it. Are you palling around with an old sin? Have you gotten really ‘friendly’ with something that years ago you wouldn’t even hang with or were afraid of? Is there a ‘Tilikum’ in your life??

Maybe it’s time to get out of the water!