It seems to me that we are all bleeding, we are all in the process of committing suicide. We are all bleeding from our wrists wondering “Why in the hell God ever created me”, asking ourselves all the while if there is any way out? And as we ourselves are bleeding God looks down and says “Peace be still, I am with you”, and as he says these words he takes his, mighty, hands and places them on our bleeding wrist and stops the bleeding…. Then a few days, weeks, or hours pass and we forget all about him and we grab the same knife as before and cut our wrist again. Then God says once again “peace” and stops our bleeding….. the cycle repeats it self over and over again. Almost like it is impossible for us to do anything other the cut our wrists in hope of relieving the pain. No matter who you are, no matter how much you love Jesus, no matter how long you have gone to Church, no matter how often you go to Church…you at times forget God and go your own way, cutting your wrists once again.
Now one thing I have never understood about myself, and many Christians in America, is that as we take the knife to our own wrist and bleed from the cuts we stand up and tell other people how ugly their cut wrists look. It seems so strange to me that as we are bleeding we would look at the other person and say “What stupid, sinful, thing did you do??? You Fool!”
Think about it…. You are dying of a disease well you look to the bed next to you and see someone dying of the same disease and say “How could you possible do something so stupid as to get yourself in this place???” So come on guys! Be honest with yourself. We all do it! No matter how hard we try to air on the side of not judging someone else dying for the same thing we are unable of viewing them through God’s eyes. We just can’t do it on our own… Grace is NOT something that comes naturally to ANY human being… Grace is a God thing. Short of having God show you his Grace and show you how to show Grace we can NEVER learn how to show Grace.
Again be honest with yourself now. How many of you people know someone who is dead set on the fact that he is not Racist or Sexiest and yet never spends ANY time around people who don’t fit in to his/her view of normal, acceptable, people?
All this to say we live in a world of hurting, bleeding, people where God simply ask us to hold the bleeding wrists of the world. God doesn’t want people who have never bled he wants people who can look down at their wrists and see the scares that mark their former selves as he looks us in the eyes and says “Go hold their bleeding wrists as I would”. I truly believe that the greatest action Jesus did on earth was to show us what Grace truly is. To me it seems like Jesus’ whole life on earth was about showing Grace and bring Grace to the world.
So it only seems fitting to me that he had two nails driven deep in to his wrists. Its like at that moment Jesus took on all My pain, all the times I cut My wrists, and looked down for the cross with eyes that only conveyed Grace. Notice how some of Jesus’ last words were words of forgiveness (Luke 23:34). To the very end of Jesus’ life here on earth he showed the world grace.
Today in America we come up against some of the hardest questions the the Church as ever faced. Today we all most wonder what the best answer is to many of the questions that face us today…. and honestly I don’t know the answers, I really truly have no idea if the way I carry out my faith around non-Christians is the right way or not, and honestly I don’t know that it matters if I Know its the right I honestly think just the fact that I am searching for the way God whats me to live me life is enough. As I said before I think God just calls for us to hold the bleeding wrists of the world. Judgment as far as I can tell is for God not me. What God calls me to do is to learn to see the world as he sees it. And I believe that when God looks at you and me he sees not our scares but rather sees his son.
Let me end by stealing something from another, much better writer, named Philip Yancey, which I have quoted before here on this blog, (be warned this is a long quote, but please still read)
“Not long ago I heard from a pastor friend who was battling with his fifteen-year-old daughter. He knew she was using birth control, and several nights she had not bothered to come home at all. The parents had tried various forms of punishment, to no avail. The daughter lied to them, deceived them, and found a way to turn the table on them: “It’s your fault for being so strict!” My friend told me, “I remember standing before the plate-glass window in my living room, staring out into the darkness, waiting for her to come home. I felt such rage. I wanted to be like the father of the Prodigal Son, yet I was furious with my daughter for the way she would manipulate us and twist the knife to hurt us. And of course, she was hurting herself more than anyone. I understood then the passages in the prophets expressing God’s anger. The people knew how to wound him, and God cried out in pain. “And I Must tell you, when my daughter came home that night, or rather the next morning, I wanted nothing in the world so much as to take her in my arms, to love her, to tell her I wanted the best for her. I was a helpless, love sick father.” Now, when I think about God, I hold up that image of the lovesick father, which is miles away from the stern monarch I used to envision. I think of my friend standing in front of the plate-glass window gazing achingly into the darkness. I think of Jesus’ depiction of the Waiting Father, heartsick, abused, yet wanting above all else to forgive and begin anew, to announce with joy, “This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found”
Now if we, are a Christian community, could only take on the view point of this father when his daughter returned home… the view point of grace and love. Please ask God to teach you how to show grace. And I will do the same. Because with out us becoming a Church of grace Christianity is dead.
Where do you see ungrace in the lives of others? Do you see these same problems in your own life?
No comments:
Post a Comment