Someone hurts my children's feelings. I have this instinct that I didn't know was inside of me to "pounce" on anyone who even looks sideways at my dear ones. (I wonder if God feels that protective of us?)
It's hard for me to be graceful when:
I receive an e-mail that fully captures my attention and my emotions - only to read at the end that if I don't forward this to ten people in the next 2.3 seconds, I will experience certain hellfire and damnation. But if I do forward the e-mail, God will smile on me and I will win lots and lots of money. (Because that's what happens when God blesses us, right?) Who writes those things, anyway? Delete.
It's hard for me to be graceful when:
People put me in a box when they learn that I am a pastor. There's this "thing" that people do when they learn of my vocation. I'm immediately pegged as the moral police and crossed off the list of "fun to hang out with." And when people swear in front of me - they cover their mouths and sheepishly say, "Sorry!" AS IF I HAVE NEVER.......Mostly, it just makes me sad. If we Christians had been doing our job of Grace-spreading instead of moral-policing all these years, well - I'd be invited to a lot more parties! (Or maybe I'm just not that fun!)
It's hard for me to be graceful when:
I hear that a college freshman and two thirteen year-olds have taken their own lives because they have been bullied to death. Why were they bullied? Because they were "other". Other than upper-middle-class-over-achieving-heterosexual-caucasian-vanilla. I wonder who taught the bullies that was OK? Was it the Christian church that began this business of "who's in and who's out?" That's what I fear. God have mercy on us.
I guess I'm just trying to say that while GRACE is my passion, my mission, I'm not always filled with it myself. I can be as ungracious as the next person. I like to think it's more about anger at injustice than it is about ungrace. But when it comes right down to it - I am so incredibly in need of God's second-chances on a minute-by-minute, breath-by-breath basis, it isn't even funny.
A wise person once told me that whenever we draw a line in the sand that differentiates between "who's in" and "who's out" - Jesus is ALWAYS on the other side. Think about that for a minute. All I can say is that I'm filled with thankfulness because we have a God who is a whole lot more gracious than any of us could dare to imagine!
When is it hard for YOU to be graceful? Just curious.
I have a muslim friend who recently experienced severe judgment from a "true Christian." I don't think I would have been very graceful if I would have witnessed that exchange. To my friend, I just apologized.
ReplyDeleteAnd just for the record, I'll hang with you any day!!! :-)
MK
Hard to be graceful. . . when Christian friends get into a contest of who's the most Christian, and like you said, draw the line in the sand. Where are you gonna go then? Two of the most born again Christians I ever knew ended up worshiping in their living room when no church was Christian enough. Setting such high standards in friendships and churches might turn out to be very lonely. Wasn't the main point love and forgiveness?
ReplyDeleteAnd just for the record, while ugly and offensive, an occasional stream of uncensored profanity can be terribly appropriate, not to mention theraputic. And, it makes for good stories when the children overhear and you have to eat your own ugly offensive words. ..
Hard to be graceful when my church is in such a hurry to be pure and get away from any church that has anything to do with gay pastors that they are willing to leave me without an employment or a place to live.
ReplyDelete