That Hurts

I bought a book Friday, Jesus Is ______.  So far it is awesome. I blew through the first chapter and wanted to keep reading, but made myself stop. I wanted to let all I had read really sink in. If you're on Twitter (and follow me), you know I was basically tweeting everything I read. No, really. It was all so good and God was showing me so much I wanted to share it all with everyone. I finally mellowed out because I figured Judah Smith probably didn't appreciate me tweeting the entire book. The first chapter is titled Jesus is your friend. Oh. my. goodness. It is packed full of good stuff, but I'll only share a little with you..

First of all, why do we as christians people like to look down on others? "I don't really do that." If you're honest, you probably have done or still do this in one way or another. For example, we look at Ms. Super Sinner and think "Whew! At least I'm not that bad." Or, in the words of Judah, "We gleefully hold up notorious evildoers as marvels of depravity, examples of just how bad people can get. Then we finish off our lattes, load our 2.2 children into our almost-paid-off SUVs, and head off to contribute to society." In reality, there are no extra-small, medium-small, large, or extra-large sins. God just calls sin, sin. This puts me on the same level as my alcoholic family member, the ex-church member who stole money, the guy that can't stay off drugs or out of jail and the girl who has slept with more guys than she can keep up with... Ouch, that kind of stings... As Judah says, it takes courage and humility to recognize we are just as messed up as any of the people I just described. The scary part is most of us will never get this honest with ourselves, or God. We will continue with our good deeds, trying to earn God's attention and love, and nothing will ever change. We're all messed up and in need of God's grace and love. As soon as we can get honest with ourselves (and God) we can live in freedom. "God doesn't define us by our actions, but by his love." Thank you, Lord.

Instead of looking down on these "really bad" people, we should make it a point to love them, just as Jesus did when he walked the earth. He was, after all, a friend of sinners. I think we hear that phrase too often. You just read that and didn't think twice about what that would really look like in your life. We hear 'friend of sinners' and let it go in one ear and out the other, never taking time to fully grasp the weight of what that means.

It is, however, easier to seperate ourselves from these "horrible" people. (Now is the part where I will heavily quote the book because he just writes it perfectly). "If I seperate myself from sinners, I don't have to deal with their pain. I don't have to walk in their shoes or love them or let my heart break with theirs. I don't have to get my hands dirty helping them put the pieces of their lives back together. I can justify rudeness and indifference when my heart should bleed with compassion. I can ignore the fact that but for the grace of God I would be doing exactly what they are doing. [...] If I seperate myself from sinners, I don't risk my own reputation. I remain a member in good standing of the holier-than-thou club, where we sit around congratulating each other on how much better we look than everyone else while agreeing that the world is going to hell in a handbasket (whatever a handbasket is) [...] Most telling of all, if I seperate myself from bad people, I feel better about myself. Because compared to them, I'm doing pretty well." All of the bolded words are my excuses. I read this and felt like someone had plugged in a blinking arrow and pointed it right in my face. So, rather than condemning you for not living up to my standards, I will remind myself of how desperately in need I am of Jesus' grace.

I want to do like Judah and resolve to open my heart to others who may live differently from me. I don't want to feel sorry for them, "make a project out of them", or "turn them into a trophy of my evangelism". I just want to be their friend. A true friend.

God show me how to live this out in my life. Help me to love others as you love me.
Until my next post...