REPENTING A SIN OF OMISSION

We want to praise the Lord for the wonderful things he does.  We were praying for the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America as they were considering a public confession concerning racism, both during the time of Civil Rights and even up to today, and a commitment to struggle against it.  In the Lord’s mercy such an Overture was passed as they (we) met down in Mobile, Alabama.  I take this to be a very good thing for our denomination, and an evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst.

   It doesn’t mean racism is ended, for that kind of sin is very human and will plague us until Jesus comes back again.  Yet, it is good for the Church to try to come to grips with it in both its history and its present existence.  One of the challenges I think we all have is to decide to love people who perpetuate racism through either their ignorance, but especially through their obstinate defense of it.  Often they don’t see what they are doing, or failing to do, as sin.

    It can be hard for people to see that something they are not doing is actually sin; we call these “sins of omission.”  It is the standing by and doing or saying nothing that often leads to the perpetuation of injustice.

     “Rescue those being led away to death, hold back those staggering toward slaughter.  If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this,’ Does not he who guards your life know it?  Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?”  (Proverbs 24:11-12)

   In my opinion much of the sin for which the founders of the PCA and even continuing into the life of the PCA are culpable, in regards to racism, is a sin committed by omission.  That sin particularly is failing to hold individuals and congregations to accountability for their racist attitudes and actions.  One of the objections to the overture was that the PCA has no official statements or actions of racism so therefore there is nothing for the whole denomination to repent about.  Ironically, there was even the call that if anyone has sinned they should be held to account through church discipline according to our standards.  How peculiar this demand is when the history of our denomination shows very few instances of such discipline, and in one case I know about, when discipline was sought, how much abuse was suffered by some of the Pastors who brought the action.

   Evidently, to those who say we should now bring discipline, there must have previously been no racism in our congregations, or in the individuals who make them up, since we haven’t found anything to discipline.  One major point in seeking the Overture is that there has been an obstinate refusal to see racism as sin, and therefore a resistance to go after individuals or churches who perpetuate it through discipline in the church courts. The evidence of this neglect is overwhelming, and it is damning evidence against the PCA. This has resulted in some having felt comfort in the church to hold such attitudes and conduct themselves in ways that have damaged persons of other ethnicities and brought dishonor to the name of Christ in our denomination.

   What this action of the PCA has done is a corporate way of distancing ourselves from, and even renouncing, what many African American and ethnic communities have considered to be the reputation of some local PCA congregations (and thus the denomination).  Those reputations may have lingered from before the PCA existed, but many churches and the buildings (which are the public reputation and geographical landmark) in which they worship, surrounded by ethnic communities, have publicly exhibited racism and exclusion.  The building in which my congregation worships in Chattanooga, Tennessee had that very reputation until 1990, (the year we took it over) well into PCA years.  Where was the cry for discipline against that congregation then?  

   One congregation (which told me this story) in South Carolina, came into the PCA after the First Presbyterian Church in their city (from which they divided,) decided to racially integrate.  They were welcomed by the local PCA Presbytery, in the guise of leaving a liberal church.  That congregation no longer rejects African Americans, hallelujah!  Yet this action of General Assembly now acts as a means of renouncing that determined act of segregation.  Again, hallelujah!

   The plea of some not to repent as a denomination but rather to pursue in discipline specific individuals is a perverted call to engage in a “witch hunt.”  Surely this is not what they want, and this is not what I desire.  I know some of our founders will die never having realized the extreme meanness (let alone horrible exegesis and terrible Biblical interpretation) of their arguments for segregation, nor the shame they have brought the church they loved so much, nor the offense and stumbling block they have caused brothers hoping they could join a fellowship of Reformed believers but wondering about our latent hypocrisy. 

    This repentance helps set us right in acknowledging our attitudes, statements, and actions (of either omission or commission) were and are wrong, while in patient love we leave the judgement concerning some of our founders to God.  Hopefully, moving on from here, our church courts will hold individuals, and congregations, accountable.  We are waiting for Jesus to smooth out all our blemishes and make us a radiant bride, we claim no perfection until then, but we are grateful when he holds a mirror up to our face and we see things we should have faced long ago.

LET ME SEE YOUR TRUE COLORS

I’m about to go to a meeting and at this meeting there will be discussions going on about racism.  This will be a rather significant meeting since it is the annual meeting of my denomination and the discussions are going to lead to various actions, reactions, and attitudes.  What will be thought, said, or done is going to be consequential though there will be cynics who will dismiss much of it, as cynics do (and this will be from all sides of the issue).  There will be those at this meeting who will belittle, dismiss, or evade as those who suffer from “racial discussion irritation” tend to do every time the subject comes up. 

    There will be some people at this meeting who will expose the formation of their thinking and attitudes concerning the issues of race as being politically driven, and will interpret everyone who might oppose them as being politically driven as well.  Thus they are dismissive that there is any “real” issue of moral, spiritual or Biblical substance. They will voice the idea that there might be some justification to the discussion if it just wasn’t put into the vocabulary of social justice forgetting that such vocabulary owes much of its content to the Biblical prophets.

       This usually comes from a conservative political side, which has cooked a stew of interpreting racial issues, complaints, cries for justice, and analysis of racial incidents as simply political in nature.  They have often interpreted the voicing of racial concerns as only things to be manipulated by liberals or democrats and not actual moral, ethical, or spiritual matters.  Such manipulation has happened of course, but it does not invalidate our own personal, congregational, or denominational history and involvement in our national racial narrative.

   This pattern of dismissal was true during the time of slavery, and the struggle for civil rights.   According to this narrative black people have never had any real issues or complaints; everything was manufactured by abolitionists, or Northern agitators, or communists for their own purposes.  The proof positive of this was always to find a Negro who expressed resentment about people bringing the issue up when they claimed to be pretty happy in the system (slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, apartheid). Oppressed people have sometimes had difficulty not only understanding their oppression (the Israelites wanted to go back to Egypt), but feeling free to tell the truth about it.

   There is an interesting dynamic in racial discussions that tends to be fairly constant, although stretching across different demographics.  This dynamic is the tendency to assume that one can live in America and be aloof from the conversation.  The issue of race in America is a national artifact, it is part of our collective history, has created our present culture, and affects every single person residing in this country.  The way we react or fail to react to the artifact of race and inter-racial conflict adds to the artifact.

    Because race as a created social construct played so heavily in the creation of America it is very difficult to walk around in public without people assigning you to a racial category.  Whether or not anyone told you how and when it happened, certain privileges and complications go with that designation.  The designation can be solely in another person’s mind, and the privilege or hindrance associated with their designation can cause one to have a blessing or be cursed.  Sometimes this designation ends up being fatal.  An example of this would be “driving while black” or being profiled and creating a confrontation that leads to violence.  There are always exceptions and negative designations are not universal, yet our history reveals tendencies depending on the lightness or darkness of skin color.

   Majority culture people who have had the possibility of living a segregated life and not actively mingling with other kinds of folks sometimes act as if they can intellectually observe all this discussion from afar, as if they have not been the recipients of racial privilege due to racism.  We often enter racial conversations as if we can be neutral, can walk away from the issue if it bothers us too much, or think that we bear no responsibility for the national culture and how it affects minority cultures.  Unfortunately we seem to get away with it too often, but it is an illusion that besets obtuse individuals who do not realize how offensive and destructive to relationship healing that they continue to be.

    We have met Europeans who have immigrated to the U.S. in the last decade or so who claim that none of these problems are theirs, that they are somehow not involved.  We have met Africans who have reacted exactly the same way, and might insist to any white racist that they are not African-American but African and should be treated differently, and react to African Americans as if this American fight is not theirs.  Again, to enter into this society is to enter into a society one of whose major and significant historical and cultural artifacts is the color of your skin, not your language nor your tribe nor where you are from and not how long you have been here.  It is part of the mess in which we step and gets on everyone’s shoes.  You might deny it but the stink of it goes with you.

    Since only those people in denial think they can escape it the only realistic way through it is to deal with it, to think about it, to discuss it.   That discussion will inevitably be with those of “another” people group, as least if one actually wants to make progress in coming to any kind of reconciliation.  Many of these discussions can be painful, opening up wounds to heal them.

   There are those who believe that “it is best to let sleeping dogs lie.”  Some might believe that those problems from a past era are over, might even be regrettable, but why bring them up now?   Again, this presupposes a certain sense of denial about current racial tensions and injustices and betrays a lack of concern or sense of responsibility about the past.  Some people think silence is a mark of peace or even a way to maintain peace and unity when in actuality it is too often a resignation (on the part of some), to the idea that progress and healing cannot be pursued or accomplished.  To others it is a convenient hiding place from dealing with their sin.

   I am looking (and I am looking for it first in myself) for a discussion in sincerity, conducted with honesty, of truth telling. I am looking for humility, a conversation of hope, filled with mercy and readiness to forgive and be forgiven.  I am looking for a hatred of sin, not just that of others but our own, and a great rush to repentance and revenge.  Revenge?  Yes, the kind that the Apostle Paul spoke of when he wrote the Corinthians about how they had dealt with sin in their church in 2 Corinthians 7:11.  I don’t think the reference concerns revenge against a person, but a revenge against sin, uncleanness, and against the Devil.  My hope is for a godly sorrow that leads to a great zeal for repentance, holiness, and justice among us; not to harm anyone but rather to heal our souls and our church.

END.

NO ONE GOES TO HELL ANYMORE, AT LEAST NOT IN PUBLIC.

  I am fairly loath to ever make pronouncements as to whether or not someone who has just died has gone to hell.  That decision is “above my pay-grade” as we used to say in the military.  It is also out of my knowledge base or capacity to know someone’s dying prayer, or dying hope and faith.  This of course leaves room for hope for most of the people we have known.

    As an American I am one of many who grieve over the death of our celebrities, to some degree.  It is usually not personal, as I have either never met such people or only met them as a fan in a very brief moment, or see them from afar.  This doesn’t mean that their life, or their talent and craft, has not affected me.  We are a celebrity culture and the culture that significant people have helped to create is the culture in which I have lived, and often enjoyed.  Even if I have sometimes morally objected to various behaviors, it doesn’t stop me from tapping my foot to a tune they wrote.  I may have disagreed with their religious commitments, but it doesn’t mean I haven’t been thrilled at their skills and abilities.

   This doesn’t mean that I am assuming these very great and talented people all went to heaven.  Just because I liked them, or liked their product, or even have really positive feelings about them doesn’t assure me that they are in heaven in God’s presence.  In fact, to tell the truth, I usually assume the opposite.  An even harder thing for me to admit as a fact (of my beliefs) is that I assume most people go to hell.

     It seems to me that it is even a bit scandalous to admit that I believe in such a thing as hell.  I think it would be almost universally condemned to say out loud that any specific celebrity went to hell, especially when so many are declaring so-and-so is now welcoming so-and-so in glory and positing other sentimental scenarios.

    Evidently America has a growing number of people who define themselves as Atheists, people who say there is no God.  These are not people wondering if there is a God, admitting that God might possibility exist, no, they claim he does not and they are absolutely sure of it.  Some of them mock those who still claim to believe in a living God.  Yet, I am stuck with a commitment to the idea that there is a real God, who has revealed himself through a written word we know as the Bible, and I believe that word to be true.  Therefore I accept that when the Bible says, “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.”  That this does in fact describe Atheists, that they are fools indeed. 

    What does this have to do with heaven and hell?   Well, quite a bit if the Bible is true.  Atheists are not going to heaven in my understanding due to their lack of belief in God.   It would be strange and a bit ironic for an Atheist to be angry at me for saying such things, since he or she couldn’t believe what I say to be correct or have any basis in reality.  Hell for the Atheist is to be finally in the place where they cannot live any longer in the comfort of their denial, and that must be really hellish. 

    They might still feel insulted at my saying that they will go to hell, and it might make me look like a rather negative person and rather intolerant.  The issue of how tolerant or intolerant I am by personality has nothing to do with my belief and adherence to my religious convictions, about which many modern people do not seem to have the perceptive ability to differentiate.  I am, I hope, a very tolerant person who believes in an absolutely intolerant God.

  In fact, according to the Bible, a whole lot of people are going to hell and not just Atheists.  Everyone in fact, except those who have been specifically forgiven by the Holy Father for their sins, is going to face an eternal judgment that will be very unpleasant.  But what about people who have done so many great and cool things, and entertained us, and seemed such nice people (at times)?  Christians who do believe the Bible have to politely (and there is almost no way it will be accepted as such) remind folks that there is no one who does not sin, and that the payoff for our sinfulness and our sinning is death, and that everyone who dies faces a judgement, and that judgment not only implies further consequence (either heaven or hell) but the Bible pretty clearly spells it out as a nasty place called the Lake of Fire.

    Again, what about people we like, or are popular, or who have done some really great things?  Here is where our society has no clear grasp of goodness or holiness, nor does it have a clear understanding of not only how inadequate we are compared to the standard of absolute righteousness, but the actual and real depth of our common sinfulness and evil.  Liberal social policies and humanistic empathy for common failings doesn’t lower the standard for a moral judgement from a completely non-compromised Divine being.  Our society is moving as fast as can away from the concept of retributive justice, while we naturally and innately all still want it personally for our own revenge.  Polite people don’t admit this until something happens to their child, women, or puppies.

   But, someone might object about someone who has died that they had their own religion and surely they were sincere in it and so who are “we” (Bible believing Christians) to judge?  I personally have no right to judge anyone, only to be faithful to the God I believe in, and to what He has revealed as truth.  But it sounds like judgment to be sure when I say that if the Bible is true, which I believe it is, then only those who are forgiven in Jesus Christ get to go heaven.  I get it, it sure does sound harsh, and exclusive, and intolerant.  It is, but I accept that God himself has the right to make his own determinations about entrance or exclusion from heaven. 

   Somewhere along the way our religion became so personalized that it seemed it was correct for people to avoid the unpleasant things about which their religion professed.  It was as if we could craft and shape our religions to fit in with polite society which people do when they say such things as, “my God would never do that.”  Or, “I could not believe in that kind of God.”   As if any of us really have a choice if there is in fact only one true and living God.  He is what he is, and not what we want to make him, and you and I cannot escape the reality which he has created.

   Well, where is the love and kindness stuff?  It is certainly not in hedging the truth to fit in with the popular narrative.  There once was a prominent professional narrative among medical doctors that they didn’t have to wash their hands or be sterile when delivering babies.  So it was that lots of women and babies died because bacteria create infection and thus kills.  Popular narratives don’t create or change truth, except the truth that people seem to hate facing reality. 

     We Christians don't really show our society, neighbors, or friends any real compassion by continuing to be silent about an approaching looming precipice for them in falling into the hands of a Judge who knows all.  People today don't seem to deny the reality of dying, the fear of death seems to vary among individuals, but they seem less and less to fear God which is their great mistake.

    Truth is not hateful, but truth is intolerant of non-truth, and may feel hateful to those who don’t want to hear it or deny it. The love and kindness stuff is that no matter the hard reality that there will be a payday coming for all of us in facing the judgement for our sins, God has paid the penalty for all of us in the gracious giving of his son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.  This is what some describe as an obnoxious intolerant exclusivity of Christianity, which in actual fact is a universal offer of mercy to all who will believe.

   God’s rigid adherence to his standards, thus his intolerance, is exhibited here as mercy when he declares that we, because of our faith, are now his children, forgiven, and inheritors of everlasting life and nothing can ever separate us from his love.  Not only can I live with that idea, it is the only way any of us get to live, eternally, at all.

END

AN APOLOGETIC WITHOUT AN APOLOGY

I was asked a question this morning that was, in a sense, a request for an apologetic of my life.  I was asked this question as I trained coaches who will be engaged in a ministry for the summer that uses soccer to gather inner-city children into teams, which will provide an opportunity for these children to be mentored and discipled by Christian young adults.  This is a ministry I helped to start some years ago to use sports to “reach’ children of middle school age in the inner-city.

    The question was essentially, “is it worth it?”   When there is so much against these kids, to realize that many of them will not make it out of high school, some of them will be killed, and some will become killers, why keep trying to “reach” them?   As someone who grew up in the inner city and was “reached” by a loving church I am unequivocal in my response, “yes, for one or many, it is worth it!”

   There are some who seem to always be standing on the sidelines criticizing us for “proselytizing.”   They have no complaints for us to use sports to cut down teen pregnancy, which we hope to do.  They have no complaints that we are fighting obesity and diabetes by using sports, which we try to do.  They have no complaints that we are giving inner city kids a productive summer in learning how to play a sport and develop sportsmanship, which we try to do.  What our critics don’t want is for us to think that we have to, nor should we, call these children into our religion.

    Let me explain our positive view about proselytizing.  When we use the word “reach” we mean to so relationally grab hold of a child that we can present, proclaim, and explain Jesus to them.  We do this without coercion or force. We do this so that they might come to faith and believe in Jesus for themselves.  We also intend for this to simply be a part of a lifelong discipleship process by introducing them into a local church whereby their life can be transformed by the Word of God.

   Is that too religious for you?   Well, we don’t apologize for that.  Instead we simply declare, “…I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone that believes, to the Jew first, and also for the Gentile.”  (Romans 1:16)  I think inner city children need a power so strong that it will deliver them from the captivity of sin and the devil.  They need a power so strong that no matter what life has thrown at them they will be able to survive, and have hope, and believe that tomorrow will be better than today.  I think children of poverty, and from broken homes, who live in communities of violence need a shield and deliverer from trauma.  I think they need a friend in God, a new identity in Christ, and a different outcome from those who won’t believe.

   So many folks do good things for the poor, and for children.  They give them things, they give them experiences.  I’m grateful, but I would much rather they be given a new life, a life of power, a life of hope, and a  life of meaning.  This life comes through their faith and by being loved and cared for by a community known as the church. 

   It is legitimate to ask if this idea, this effort, this ministry, and in fact a lifetime of ministry such as mine has made any difference at all for anyone?   Of course we see the failures, and we sometimes see their faces in the newspaper after they have been a shooting victim, or we see them as a mug shot on their way to prison.  We also see the faces of those children coming to church, we see the faces of mothers who thank us for loving their children, we see the faces of those kids graduating from school, we see them making their way and establishing families for themselves.  We believe in the face of all the statistics that would make us doubt the value of our life and work that we will see their faces in heaven.

    I think the more relevant question might be is anyone’s effort worth it if they are not “reaching” these children?   We intend to change the character of boys and girls, and we intend to change their emotions from despair, frustration and rage to emotions of hope and love.  We intend to change their futures; concerning education, work, justice, and family.  We intend for them to change their culture.  We intend, by the grace of God, to change their eternal destination.

  I am not intimidated by the question since there has been much good fruit to show for the effort.  I am not intimidated by the critics of our evangelical faith, since I see no real contribution from them on the streets.  I am downhearted and brokenhearted every day by the statistics, the newspaper accounts, the gunshots, the blood on the street, the caskets at the funerals, the sound of prison bars slamming shut, the absent seats of those we wish we could have reached, the silent voices we will not hear when they could have been singing in the choir.  I do not advocate this work because I am ignorant of the mess and disaster, I advocate this work because I have been called, saved, and know the Master, and have seen what He can do.

DON'T BE A JERK!

1.     Pastors ought not to yell at people.   You might yell when you preach but if you ever have to personally confront, rebuke, or reprove someone use a gentle tone of voice.  Often members will feel you are “yelling” at them simply because you tell them the truth about themselves, just don’t really yell.  It makes you look like an emotional abuser.

2.    Don’t be an emotional abuser.  You should never use guilt to get your way, or maneuver someone into a decision so they will be more useful for your ministry or program.  Guilt is a powerful and useful tool, and a good tool, when used by the Holy Spirit to convict people of real sin.  If you use guilt (making people feel guilty) to get more money, more time, or their cooperation in your personal agenda then you have misused it and brought shame to the cloak of your authority.  Guilt should always lead someone to the cross, not to your advantage.

3.    Pastors ought to ask themselves what it is they are selling.  What is your life an advertisement for in terms of what you brag about, what you post pictures about on your Facebook page, what everyone knows about you or thinks about first when they hear your name?  Is it that you love sports, hunt, drink Scotch whiskey, smoke Cuban cigars, play in a rock band, that you are an expert on various aesthetic experiences, or social justice causes; just what are you making famous?  Wouldn’t it be good if it was Christ, and that the first thing people thought about when they thought about you was your love for Christ, your labors for Christ, and that you treat others with the love of Christ?  Enjoy life, but stop wearing everyone out with all your interests, hobbies, fetishes, or ego pumps.

4.    Stop glad handing, grinning, complimenting, and using flattery when you know you are lying.  You don’t have to be mean, or unkind, or frowning all the time but you can at least be honest.  If you don’t think something was done well, if you don’t think a decision was right, if you think this is the wrong person for the job then even if you have to keep your opinion to yourself for the sake of peace, don’t lead people on that you are in agreement.  If you are a “people pleaser” and afraid of the faces of men get back in touch with the fear of God.

5.    Take yourself and your doctrine seriously, but don’t fool yourself.  Others can see your faults, idiosyncrasies, mistakes, and sins pretty readily.   They know the difference between truth lovingly presented and dogma that only make an impression when you use it like a club to beat people over the head.   Give everybody a break and lighten up about yourself.  Learn to laugh at yourself and not get all bent out of shape when somebody makes fun of you.  If your insecurity won’t allow you to own up to being human, maybe you need a touch of confidence in your sonship.  Being serious about being a preacher and a man of God should not mean presenting yourself as a jerk.  Share your humanness with the church by using your own mistakes as illustrations in your sermons, by admitting that you don’t know everything, and by humbly taking advice especially from your Elders.

6.    Pastors should be good haters.  They should hate evil, real evil, and not waste time doing a lot of hating over the insignificant and what is “petty bad.”  Some pastors waste too much time being censorious, judgmental, and legalistic about stuff that doesn’t really send anyone to hell or kill human beings. They should be good at hating, and never stop hating cruelty, injustice, oppression, poverty, abuse, disease, sickness and death.  They should hate it when the people they love fail, when they fall into sin, when lives are wasted, when people give up the faith.  They should hate it when the church leaves its first love, when it starts believing lies and liars.  But they should hate in a good way, and that by never actually hating people, nor by using evil means to stand up to evil but rather by overcoming evil with good.

7.    The tougher you are the sweeter you need to be, especially to those who oppose you.  The smarter you are, the more educated, the more skilled means you need humility in converse or inverse proportion.  Let others praise you and not your own mouth.  The stronger, harder, and more powerful you are the lower you need to stoop to wash the feet of those you lead, or those who you know are wrong.  The more you want to fight the faster you need to forgive and love.  Humility is a great and powerful weapon and we keep it in our holster far too long.

A REPENTANT ECONOMIC LIFE

    I read in Luke 3:7-14 about John the Baptist calling on people to repent.  “What should we do then?’  The crowd asked.  John answered, ‘The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.’”

   I thought on this first part of his answer before I moved on to the specific repentance agenda JtheB gives for tax collectors and soldiers.  John’s first instruction seemed to be a general one, to the general person in the crowd.  As I thought about it I figured maybe this has something to do with me, and you. 

   As a Christian believer I consider repentance to be necessary for a healthy spiritual life.  I am conscious that I am a sinner.  Sometimes I actually realize I have committed a sin, though I admit that sometimes my sins happen so fast by omission or commission, or by thought or attitude, that I didn’t even realize I was being tempted or acknowledge to myself or God that I was doing wrong.  Later, after the fact of my sinning, it sometimes comes home to me that I have failed God.  Yes, sometimes I do know full well I am being tempted and full well I am choosing to sin.  Those moments don’t make me feel good about myself.

   Is it possible that JtheB is exposing some sinfulness in me that I didn’t even realize I had when he says this to the crowd?   What did I do except work hard enough and save enough to have food and clothes?  Even before he comes, later in his remarks, to stealing and exploitation and oppression from authority he is picking on regular, ordinary, working type materialists; like us. 

    We are all materialists.  We have to be to live in a material world, but Jesus nails us in Luke 12 about this propensity of ours to worry about normal and necessary things.  Here John calls on us to share with those who are without.  It seems he is even calling on those of us who might only have two tunics, or just a little extra food, to share with those who have none.  This would imply a sacrificial generosity and not simply a generosity of surplus.

   This prompts me to think, and to pray, and ask Jesus to help me to look for those who have such need.  I am prompted to think about and care even before I am asked by someone for help.  In fact, now that I think about it, being preemptive in merciful giving to those who are without might be a better way of showing love than just responding at the moment of a request by a panhandler.  Maybe it might look like I thought about them even before they thought about me. 

   Then it occurs to me that a lot of us don’t know any poor people.  We don’t hang out with them, we don’t go to their neighborhoods, and we prefer to do our proactive mercy through agencies where we drop off our old clothes or canned goods.  This repentant life seems to want to affect my lifestyle.  Oh, I do believe in grace, forgiveness, the washing away of my sins by the blood of Jesus, and that salvation is by faith.  I don’t think of repenting as a way of gaining God’s favor.  I think of it more as the way God wants me to live, and that he can empower me to live the way he wants by his supernatural power.

  Lord, open my eyes to see the poor, to feel their need.  Lord, move me to give once I see.  Forgive me for waiting so long, for waiting until I no longer want what I have so that I can give without any loss to myself.  Lord, give me faith and courage so that I won’t be afraid of becoming poor myself, that my security would not be my idolatry.

STOP YOUR GRUMBLING!

What is the difference between a critique of a situation, event, or person and complaining?  That is easy for me; when I do it then it is a critique, but when others do it they are complaining.  How I wish I was really that righteous and could say that in all honesty.

   I sometimes jokingly tell people that my spiritual gift is criticism, but it is actually a confession of sorts.  I have been trained, and I am inclined, to analyze events and performance.  I have often demoralized people who work for me and with me by telling them how something could have been better instead of thanking them, or complimenting them on their efforts.  I am grateful that some of them had the courage to let me know they didn’t appreciate my “helpful” comments.  Evidently they didn’t want to improve, but at least I learned something.  (I do hope you “get” sarcasm when you read it.)

    I have caused damage to my marriage, to my children, and to the staff and members of my church because of my “natural” inclination.  Now, sometimes I have been really disappointed in someone’s performance or even in the circumstances that God in his providence decided I had need to experience.  Instead of rejoicing always, and in every situation, I have certainly let God know that he could have done a better job at providing, or guiding me, or controlling me or the situation.    I may not have balled my fist or yelled out at him, but certainly the attitude of my heart was doing the same thing.

  [My comments here are about fairly superficial circumstances, and not that of “the dark night of the soul” or a deep struggle with God about the death of loved ones, suffering, and injustice.  Sometimes a very honest discussion with God is necessary, but the only righteous conclusion of such an argument with God has to be, like that of Job, where the Lord is acknowledged as justly and righteously God in his wisdom and decision.]

    I realize that I need lots of praise, expressions of appreciation, and encouragement.  At times I think I have been desperate for it.  My emotional well-being depended on hearing from people I respected; that I was saying, doing, or being what they thought was important and worthwhile. Yet, when others have looked to me, or listened out for just one good word, I have been silent.  Their excellence and their contribution to my event or goals was what I thought it should be and I walked away as if I took it for granted, which I have far too many times.  May God forgive me, again.    “…How good is a timely word.” Proverbs 15:23

    When we complain about people, especially to other people rather than the one about who our complaint is about, we may be guilty of slander.  It is so easy of course to “evaluate” others, to see their mistakes and failures.  Sometimes when we are in authority we have to hold those people accountable, correct them, or even to dismiss them from employment.  We have no right to mock them, impugn their motives, or deride them to others.  We certainly wouldn’t like it if they did that to us, so when we do it we are guilty of not loving others as we love ourselves.  Guarding our tongues in this can be difficult especially when we work in a place where we have to discuss the performance or behavior of others and how they relate to the ministry or organization for which we have responsibilities.

    How we speak about the institutions we are part of, (for whom we work or have been willingly associated with), also exposes our integrity, our ability to respect authority, and our faith or lack of it when it comes to reflecting out loud on how this or that institution might be treating us or others.  Some of us feel free to disparage (from within) the very ministries, organizations, or companies we are supposed to be building, managing, and helping to prosper. 

   I am often startled by how members of a church or a denomination can at one moment vociferously denounce it while remaining in it and even enjoying the blessings and privileges it grants them.  “A perverse man stirs up dissension and a gossip separates close friends.” Proverbs 16:28  This kind of grumbling seems to come out quickly and suddenly with seemingly no self-awareness of hypocrisy.  I confess, all organizations and institutions fail to be perfect.  It is sort of a logical necessity that fallen human beings collectively working together will screw things up.  What is amazing, by the grace of God, is what actually goes well and is done well.

   I am not abandoning the desire for excellence.  I certainly need to aspire to greater and better achievement, to accomplishment, to good work.  I need to stop cutting myself so much slack in evaluating what I am doing and excusing my failures.  However, I know I need positive response to keep going, encouraging response from others to cheer for me on my run through this life.  If I need it so badly, then I pray for God to open my mouth so I will let others know they are running well, or even that at least they are still running when it looks so hard to do so.  “The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life…” Proverbs 15:4

   We need to be careful with our grumbling, with our complaints, with our astute observations of the weakness and incapacity of others.  We dare not insult a very good and faithful God about his performance.  What will we do when he demonstrates that he can be really good at holding people accountable for the stupid things that come out of their mouths and which expose their hearts?