Does it confound you
when you are treated badly, when you are ignored and your effort discredited or
discounted? Are you stunned by the rude
behavior around you, by the lack of effort you see, by the selfishness and
undependability everywhere you go? It is
never those you just see every once in a while who give you the most trouble,
it is the ones closest to you: your spouse, children, parents, co-workers,
fellow church members, clients, relatives, teammates. We are too absorbed by our coming and
going, what we want to get done, our expectations and fantasies to see how life
really is. The impact of sin is
universal and ubiquitous but we have a frivolous demand that it not be here or
there, not be where we want a break from it.
Sin is in your sister just as solidly as your supervisor and your
political leaders and public personalities.
Sin has gotten ahold of your husband as well as your daughter and it is
shut up in your babysitter and kindly uncle.
The sin you see in yourself is everywhere you look and you cannot get
away from it here. Your father acts
badly because of sin just as your favorite sports hero and the girl you have
had your eye on for months. Sin is
pervasive and swelling in influence and effect.
Rather than growing cynical and bitter about it, face the sin head
on. Know it is there just as surely as
it is within you. Only the fool sees no
sin in herself and the spiritually naïve are shocked by its appearance when
they make a friendship. You are a sinner
living among sinners so give everyone a break and relax. Jesus Christ was not rattled by the sin all
about Him...He could just as easily forgive the woman caught in adultery as
call out the Pharisees who dreamed at night of the woman they wanted to smash
with stones because she wasn't with them.
Jesus Christ does not fret over sin taking hold of the friends he
"trusts"; He redeems them. The
same work happening with you is going on in those about you. It is absurd
to fuss and stew over your son's undone homework and your husband's lack
of regard for your needs. They are
sinners and Christ is redeeming them just as surely as He is you and your
unseemliness. It is easy to realize how
everyone must be patient with you because of the sin you struggle to master;
what about those who you find unattractive and unreasonable; can you see how
patience is required for them too? God
is not finished with them too. The work
in progress of Christ redeeming mankind is too cumbersome and tedious for many
of us to endure and we get exasperated by its snail pace...but the work will be
done in you as well as those about you so why not relax a bit and give the Lord
room to crucify each of us that we might all live in Christ fully and
completely. So just take your hand off
the horn, give up your right to blow up on your wife and don't make it worse
for God as He does the redeeming and you in turn grow in your faith that Jesus
Christ is Lord of ALL.
In your unfailing love you will lead the people you
have redeemed. In your strength you will
guide them to your holy dwelling.
Exodus 15:13 NIV
