I’m not sure we really believe (pt 1) | God loves everyone
There’s a few basic truths and concepts that are foundational to being a Christ follower that are so broad and obvious that we tend to under think the ramifications that they have on our every day lives.
God loves everyone.
I don’t think you will disagree with me. In fact, I’m not even going to list Bible verses where it says this…you know them.
I think we fail to add this truth up where the rubber meets the road of real life.
God loves me. I can get behind that, after all, I’m pretty easy to love. I smell pretty good most days. I’m not terribly ugly. I reasonably well read and educated.
God loves you. Not too hard to grasp. You’re a nice person. Not too many people hate you.
God loves child molesters, drug addicts, that neighbor with the barking dogs, terrorists, George Bush, Al Gore, Lance Bass…everyone. Whoa, whoa, whoa.
That’s hard to grasp. But I can grit my teeth and accept it.
But when you add it up and realize that as a Christ follower you are suppose to love everyone too…it gets tricky. I think a lot of us try to forget this. Its easier to sweep it under the rug.
Did we really sign up for that?
[photo : jamesfischer]
Yesterday, my son told me about a kid at his summer camp that’s been picking on him. Nothing terrible: just some name calling and rough housing.
And then he told me about how the kid threw a bag of cheetos at him.
“What did you do, buddy?” I asked him.
“Well, I told him he should clean it up, but he didn’t so I cleaned it up.”
I got so angry that I almost told my sweet, precious 8 yr old son to punch this kid in the throat. I told him that he shouldn’t have cleaned up that other kids mess, and that I was going to have a talk with the counselors at the Y. I was fuming.
I should have really said something like this:
“Son, that’s pretty much what Jesus would have done. I’m very proud of you.”
Sometimes it’s hard to love.
[Reply]
i learn so much from my kids
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