God has been teaching me a lot about grace and my own prejudices lately. Like this one: The guy who built our bookcases happens to be homeless at the moment because he recently got out of prison (not sure yet why he was there). I realized that I kept referring to him as our "homeless" friend and I began to realize that this had sort of, in a way, become a source of pride for me (you know, "look how good I am letting a homeless man build my bookcases" Yuck - I make myself sick to even read that!!). I also realized that in referring to him in this way, I was sort of "dehumanizing" him. I don't refer to my close friends according to their neighborhood or past sins and if I did, it would be horribly disrespectful and not so gracious. But because he is poor, I in my arrogance, had been distancing myself from the reality of his LIFE. Repented. And from now on, you'll have to ask my friends about their backgrounds yourself unless it would give God a lot of glory for me to share it with you! :)
I'm almost finished reading Shane Claiborne's Irresistible Revolution. Here's one of my favorite quotes from today: "That stuff Jesus warned us to beware of, the yeast of the Pharisees, is so infectious today in the camps of both liberals and conservatives. Conservatives stand up and thank God that they are not like the homosexuals, the Muslims, the liberals. Liberals stand up and thank God that they are not like the war makers, the yuppies, the conservatives. It is a similar self-righteousness, just with different definitions of evildoing. It can paralyze us in judgment and guilt and rob us of life. Rather than separating ourselves from everyone we consider impure, maybe we are better off just beating our chests and praying that God would be merciful enough to save us from this present ugliness and to make our lives so beautiful that people cannot resist that mercy."
God have mercy on ME, a big fat sinner!! I'll tell you, I think parenting, more than anything else, has humbled the pants off of me. I have repented of every judgment I can ever remember making against anyone or their children! But those are thoughts for another night!
Blessings of Jesus,
anda
2 comments:
Amen and amen. I love you!
Anda,
I'm so glad you have started this blog. I love to read your thoughts and am always challenged by them. Yet I know you are hesitant to write them at length on the brown blog. I will miss them there, so don't quit posting:), but look forward to you being able to share more freely here! I love your heart, sister!
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