- Had Azia and Cold Stone with my Home Group boys…the night has been good. #
- Hello, BCS Top 10. Have you met my dear friends, the SC Gamecocks? Rock on…ya’ll have fun! GO COCKS!! #
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Archive for October 5th, 2007
Talk about difficult.
It’s hard just discerning between the two on some occasions, let alone trying to project compassion over judgment toward the person you desire to affect.
It’s hard, this business of caring about people. Mostly because we all need help. None of us is perfect. We’re each no better (or worse) than the other.
Here’s my take on all of this.
I can’t always see what I’m doing wrong, but I can see the shortcomings in others. Because what I think, feel and experience is all I really know, I have to assume that others live with that very same conundrum.
I don’t mean that because I now choose not to drink until I’m drunk that I can see others getting drunk. That’s obvious. I don’t mean because I’ve vowed to refrain from sexual activity until marriage that I can see other people indulging. We can all see that. Well…not see that, but you know what I mean!
I mean to speak here to, and about, my fellow Christians. So with that said, I’m going to be confronting matters of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:16-26) Because it’s these matters that truly affect us and our walk with Christ.
It’s so very hard to see in ourselves when we allow ourselves to indulge things like selfish ambition, jealousy, and idolatry. I’m amazed at how I can feel as if I know these things well, yet somehow, seemingly blindly, stumble into their traps. Because what I know is all I know, I have to assume I am not alone, that each of us is just as blind to our own shortcomings as I am.
I want for others to point these things out to me. When I took up the yoke of Jesus Christ, I made this commitment to live by the Spirit (see above reference). That life is the life I desire. I have to assume that you, having made claim to carry the same yoke, share that same desire.
I must let you know when I see you fall. I must because I want for you to do the same with me.
It’s not being judgmental. It’s being compassionate.
No one likes to have someone point out to them what they’re failing at.
But we all need that. It’s great motivation – if in fact you are seeking to live by the Spirit.
God has made it abundantly clear, throughout His Word, that we cannot carry our burdens alone.
Am I not being kind when I say to you that this thing you do is having a negative impact on your life? This thing you do, which you’ve said you don’t want to do, is making such an impact on your life that I can see it. The Apostle Paul admitted that he, too, had this same problem.
Romans 7:15 (New International Version)
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
It’s inherent in all of us that we will make mistakes. It is going to happen. Not a single one of us is perfect. And, also, not a single one of us is always truthful – especially to ourselves.
The mind is an amazing thing. I know that I can tell myself, “I do not want to do this,” and immediately I begin conjuring ways of justifying doing that very thing. I don’t always give in…but sometimes I do.
I can only know what I know, and I have to assume you face the same problems. Especially if the Apostle Paul admitted he suffered the very same internal conflict.
I’ve admitted it. Can you?
I’m going to tell you when I see you do something contradictory to the nature you desire to live in.
Will you do the same for me?
Is this not a great expression of kindness?
Is this not possibly an even greater expression of love, which we are all commanded to do? (Matthew 5:43-44; Matthew 19:19; Mark 12:33; Luke 10:27; Romans 13:8-9)
Galatians 5:14 (New International Version)
The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t take the time to show compassion. You may not see it that way now, but I’m willing to take that risk in hopes that you will someday.
1 Corinthians 13:13 (New International Version)
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Now.
I ask you, in all honesty, has anything I said here been judgmental?
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