Prepare the way by letting God be God
Friday December 9th Mark 1: 7And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. The very essence of sin in this world is the desire to be like God. It is our not so subtle way of trying to be in control and therefore not let God be in control of our lives. John got that. As powerful as John was with a following far greater than anything Jesus had in his lifetime, John continued to see himself as a servant of Christ and one who was sent to prepare the way. Preparing the way is our calling also. Prepare the way in your heart through prayer. Prepare the way in the world by telling others of God’s love. Prepare the way by speaking up and correcting the Christian message in love, when it is misused to further the way of hatred and war. Prepare the way by bringing the message of Grace into a world that all too often sees and hears the Christian message as one of hate and self righteousness. Prepare the way.
posted by Dan at 2:55 PM
2 Comments:
So Dan,
Can one tell of the Love of God and still harbor hate and resentment toward others in their heart? Can we love God and still hate our own enemies?
Wondering what your thoughts are.
Rungu
Can you tell of the Love of God and still harbor hate and resentment? Yes. The trouble lies in letting it go at that. Forgiving someone is a process. Sometimes that process is short lived and we can forgive someone, or some entity (like a nation or group of people or institution) and sometimes, that process is a life long endeavor. The trouble with hatred or resentment is that the main victim is yourself. Fredrick Buechner in his book “Wishful Thinking” describes anger, which is the outgrowth of harboring hate and resentment, in this way. Anger: Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possible the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack you lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back – in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.
Living a life filled with hatred and resentment means that we have given control of our lives over to the very thing we hate or resent. Slowly our hearts become closed off until we are able to even say no to the love of God. There is a story of a seminary professor who had the students draw pictures of someone they disliked or even hated. If it was not a single person, then they were asked to draw a caricature of someone who represented a group of people they couldn’t stand or hated. Then they were asked to tape the pictures on a large piece of paper taped over a bulletin board in the room. Each student was given darts and asked to throw the darts at the drawing of the person they hated. Again and again the darts flew and ripped the pictures apart. The professor then went and took out the darts, and removed the paper the tattered and torn pictures were taped to. There was a picture of Jesus, now tattered and torn by the violent energy of the darts. The professor said, “that is your lesson for today” and left the room in silence.
Where there is hatred, sow peace. What is healed is your own heart.
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