We like to think that we are important, powerful, and wise. It's interesting to see so many of the arguments on Facebook these days. A body cannot post something about a cute kitten anymore without someone else flaming them with a diatribe about it being fake or pointless. We call those people "trolls." Either they really think they are that smart and entitled to share their smartness with you, or they're just jerks.
I saw a saying once: "All I want is a constant and exaggerated sense of my own importance." Isn't that the truth? None of us want to believe that we're worthless, stupid, unimportant, and unwanted. If we aren't made to feel important by others, we often do things to make ourselves feel more important. Left unchecked, this can get dangerous. We get puffed up, big-headed, and to others, insufferable.
It's the guy in your church who's always telling everyone what the church should be doing, or what it should not be doing, and why the leaders are terrible and should be ousted. It's they person who seems to have ordained herself as the spiritual policewoman of the church, and she has a litany of quotations and texts to back up her ideas (the ultimate expert in what is called isogeses: I have an idea or belief, and I go to the Bible to back it up, rather than allowing the Bible to teach me what I should believe and do, which is called exegesis).
Such people can be pretty annoying. But as I read this story in John 13 about how Jesus handled Judas (and the supplementary materials from The Desire of Ages, Chapter 75), I see this perfect man who handles a truly obnoxious situation in a way that I would struggle with mightily. Jesus does not out Judas directly. He does not put up a fight against him. Rather, He allows Judas to betray Him for the price of a slave. Jesus doesn't argue. He takes it! And even when Judas makes a plea for Jesus to be saved, Jesus says, "It's for this reason I came!"
Even Jesus' betrayer was, without even knowing it, accomplishing God's will.
There are always going to be annoying, obnoxious, know-it-alls in your life that have a high opinion of themselves. To look at Jesus is to see a man who suffered such people, called them out if necessary, and simply proved Himself to be Who He was without trying to argue them down.
People will eventually show themselves for who they are. There is no point in behaving any differently than Jesus did. Show kindness and love. Correct only as the Holy Spirit leads, and with great humility. Keep your eyes on Jesus and do what He's called you to do to make disciples. The rest is His to handle.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Ramped Up
"Don't get mad. Get even!"
Popular words for the one who cannot really take a hit. Really, a lot of people aren't satisfied with getting even. They really want to get a "leg-up" on someone else and make sure they're in the dominant position when it's all over with.
The cycle continues. Enemies ramp each other up.
I've been reading Bill O'Reilly's book, Killing Kennedy. I just finished his take on the Cuban Missile Crisis of October, 1962, thirteen days of intense worrying by many in the United States (including Kennedy himself) that a nuclear holocaust was imminent. Today, most of us probably have no concept of how close how close we came to not having a United States by Christmas of that year. Or a USSR. Within minutes, millions of people in this country (and in another thousands of miles away) could have been killed if either Kennedy or Kruschev had given the go-ahead.
What strikes me about this is the rhetoric that was going back and forth. It was forceful and scary. And behind all of it was an unstated thing, it seems--neither wanted to look like the fool in the eyes of their respective nations or in the eyes of the rest of the world. Neither wanted the other to have the upper hand. "Don't get mad... get better!" may have wiped out whole nations.
The ways of Jesus just don't go with the ways of this world. Before the Sanhedrin, as they spat at him, beat him, and falsely accused him, hardly a word passed his lips, save that which acknowledged him as the Son of God, the Christ.
He didn't get mad! That's the thing that amazes me. The most abused man in history did not get mad. He did not retaliate or even hint at retaliation. He could have initiated something much more powerful than a nuke. But he just stood there and took it, the "Lamb led to slaughter" that Isaiah had written about centuries before.
If ever there was One who will not ramp up the rhetoric, incite a mob himself, or strike back at persecutors, it is Jesus. I have to wonder what the world would be like if we truly did the same. That's tough! This nation, "under God," has retaliated swiftly and decisively against those who have done us harm. I get it. "What are we supposed to do, just roll over and expose our belly? Should not those who do unjust things get what's coming? What of the abusers? The child-molestors? The terrorists? Rapists?"
Scripture doesn't tell us that those who do others harm should just be allowed to continue doing harm. Consequences for actions are inevitable. That's not what I'm talking about. The vulnerable deserve to be protected.
But what if we, on individual levels, chose to react differently to those who persecute us? Wrongly accuse us? What if we stopped trying to "get even" or "get ahead"? What if our response to wrong was kindness and prayer, as opposed to lashing back out?
Not that I'm any good at it myself. I have plenty of Walter Mitty conversations where I'm lashing out (in my head) at someone I'm not happy with. I cannot tell anyone to change how they react without asking God to change how I react. This isn't just some global, peacenik rant. It's personal. It's individual. Unless we choose to react differently on an individual level, nothing on a grander scale will ever change.
Lord, help me to respond to attackers, abusers, and those bent on injustice with Your love, Your calmness, and Your dignity. I cannot do it without You.
Jesus. ALL.
Popular words for the one who cannot really take a hit. Really, a lot of people aren't satisfied with getting even. They really want to get a "leg-up" on someone else and make sure they're in the dominant position when it's all over with.
The cycle continues. Enemies ramp each other up.
I've been reading Bill O'Reilly's book, Killing Kennedy. I just finished his take on the Cuban Missile Crisis of October, 1962, thirteen days of intense worrying by many in the United States (including Kennedy himself) that a nuclear holocaust was imminent. Today, most of us probably have no concept of how close how close we came to not having a United States by Christmas of that year. Or a USSR. Within minutes, millions of people in this country (and in another thousands of miles away) could have been killed if either Kennedy or Kruschev had given the go-ahead.
What strikes me about this is the rhetoric that was going back and forth. It was forceful and scary. And behind all of it was an unstated thing, it seems--neither wanted to look like the fool in the eyes of their respective nations or in the eyes of the rest of the world. Neither wanted the other to have the upper hand. "Don't get mad... get better!" may have wiped out whole nations.
The ways of Jesus just don't go with the ways of this world. Before the Sanhedrin, as they spat at him, beat him, and falsely accused him, hardly a word passed his lips, save that which acknowledged him as the Son of God, the Christ.
He didn't get mad! That's the thing that amazes me. The most abused man in history did not get mad. He did not retaliate or even hint at retaliation. He could have initiated something much more powerful than a nuke. But he just stood there and took it, the "Lamb led to slaughter" that Isaiah had written about centuries before.
If ever there was One who will not ramp up the rhetoric, incite a mob himself, or strike back at persecutors, it is Jesus. I have to wonder what the world would be like if we truly did the same. That's tough! This nation, "under God," has retaliated swiftly and decisively against those who have done us harm. I get it. "What are we supposed to do, just roll over and expose our belly? Should not those who do unjust things get what's coming? What of the abusers? The child-molestors? The terrorists? Rapists?"
Scripture doesn't tell us that those who do others harm should just be allowed to continue doing harm. Consequences for actions are inevitable. That's not what I'm talking about. The vulnerable deserve to be protected.
But what if we, on individual levels, chose to react differently to those who persecute us? Wrongly accuse us? What if we stopped trying to "get even" or "get ahead"? What if our response to wrong was kindness and prayer, as opposed to lashing back out?
Not that I'm any good at it myself. I have plenty of Walter Mitty conversations where I'm lashing out (in my head) at someone I'm not happy with. I cannot tell anyone to change how they react without asking God to change how I react. This isn't just some global, peacenik rant. It's personal. It's individual. Unless we choose to react differently on an individual level, nothing on a grander scale will ever change.
Lord, help me to respond to attackers, abusers, and those bent on injustice with Your love, Your calmness, and Your dignity. I cannot do it without You.
Jesus. ALL.
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