Once there was a dog who liked to play fetch. He would often go up to the children in the churchyard with sticks or balls. All he wanted was for them to throw something out for him to chase after, to show a little friendship and affection... yet all the boys and girls would ever do is ignore him, shove him away or abuse him by beating him with the sticks he had brought... all this merely because they either didn't want him around or just didn't understand what he was really about. Yet despite his bruises the dog never gave up hope that he would be accepted for who he was.
Yeah it's a story... a parable if you like... but it's how I feel. Despite the odds, a friend of mine managed to talk me out of a dark place on Friday. It was a place where I was perceiving most Christians as hostile or rude and intolerant and unaccepting of me. It's a weapon the enemy is using against me with great fervour at the moment.
A weekend of peace that not even England's unkind exit in the World Cup managed to crack (well okay my Dad managed to wind me up about that on a couple of occasions until I was a boiling engine of rage... but fathers are good at that... aren't they). Today I received a couple of disheartening and upsetting messages in my Myspace Inbox. Time after time the human race just does not get me... has no grasp of where I am coming from and is so quick to judge and point the finger. Why my fellow Christians should be especially adept at this is both beyond my understanding and highly ironic. I'm not going to give in though. If people want to play that game... fine, let God convict them of it. I know who I am... and it is not who any mere mortal on this Earth makes me out to be.
Truth be told I would be happy with just a handful of genuine Christian people to talk to. No plastics, no legalists, no clique members... I'll stick with the Christians on the outside edges thank you very much. That's right... the one's who get labelled as weird or geeks... who don't get accepted by other Christians because they seem a bit odd. Message to the elitists... we are good enough for God so why aren't we good enough for you? Who appointed you judge jury and executioner over us? Why do you cling to your sacrifices and forget the important things such as mercy and compassion? Away with your heresies! I tell you the truth, whatever you do not do for the least of your brethren... you do not do it for Him!
I don't know how Jesus feels about this, but my patience is wearing thin. To quote the good Doctor:
"I'm so old now. I used to have so much mercy. You get one warning. That was it."
Cut your brothers and sisters out of the loop... judge their actions too harshly... and you've done it to Christ.
Mark that well for your own sake. Sometime there is a fine line between discernment and prejudice... I believe this generation has crossed it!
N
PS I now feel I've moved onto the next line in the poem "If". Whereas before I was merely having to believe in myself when all others doubt me, yet make allowance for their doubting too.... now I feel I have to resist the urge to lie when I'm being lied about and not give way to being hated when so much hatred is coming towards me.
Yeah it's a story... a parable if you like... but it's how I feel. Despite the odds, a friend of mine managed to talk me out of a dark place on Friday. It was a place where I was perceiving most Christians as hostile or rude and intolerant and unaccepting of me. It's a weapon the enemy is using against me with great fervour at the moment.
A weekend of peace that not even England's unkind exit in the World Cup managed to crack (well okay my Dad managed to wind me up about that on a couple of occasions until I was a boiling engine of rage... but fathers are good at that... aren't they). Today I received a couple of disheartening and upsetting messages in my Myspace Inbox. Time after time the human race just does not get me... has no grasp of where I am coming from and is so quick to judge and point the finger. Why my fellow Christians should be especially adept at this is both beyond my understanding and highly ironic. I'm not going to give in though. If people want to play that game... fine, let God convict them of it. I know who I am... and it is not who any mere mortal on this Earth makes me out to be.
Truth be told I would be happy with just a handful of genuine Christian people to talk to. No plastics, no legalists, no clique members... I'll stick with the Christians on the outside edges thank you very much. That's right... the one's who get labelled as weird or geeks... who don't get accepted by other Christians because they seem a bit odd. Message to the elitists... we are good enough for God so why aren't we good enough for you? Who appointed you judge jury and executioner over us? Why do you cling to your sacrifices and forget the important things such as mercy and compassion? Away with your heresies! I tell you the truth, whatever you do not do for the least of your brethren... you do not do it for Him!
I don't know how Jesus feels about this, but my patience is wearing thin. To quote the good Doctor:
"I'm so old now. I used to have so much mercy. You get one warning. That was it."
Cut your brothers and sisters out of the loop... judge their actions too harshly... and you've done it to Christ.
Mark that well for your own sake. Sometime there is a fine line between discernment and prejudice... I believe this generation has crossed it!
N
PS I now feel I've moved onto the next line in the poem "If". Whereas before I was merely having to believe in myself when all others doubt me, yet make allowance for their doubting too.... now I feel I have to resist the urge to lie when I'm being lied about and not give way to being hated when so much hatred is coming towards me.
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