Have you ever wanted to write something and you just have no idea how to begin? I love to write but it often baffles me how most bloggers eloquently ease the reader into the mind boggling epiphany they want to share.
Maybe I am just too awkward or blunt for such things.
OR maybe my epiphanies are hardly mind boggling.
ANYWAYS….
(how’s that for an intro?)
Or how’s this…
Today I want to talk about this guy
And maybe also this girl:
I have a few others I could include but these 2 have been on my mind a lot lately (Interesting combo I know)
Before everyone gets their panties in a wad let me take the time to explain.
Actually scratch that, I hope when I am done explaining your panties are in a wad because then I will have accomplished what I have set out to do.
Okay so,
I have started reading this killer book called, “Accidental Saints, Finding God in all the Wrong People.” It’s an amazing read and I highly recommend it. Unless you are someone who can’t stand getting called out on your crap. Then I suggest you avoid it entirely.
Anyways, this book has had the wonderful nerve to call me out on a lot of my junk and it has gotten me thinking. I mean really thinking.
The sitting by my window staring off into the distance with my coffee for 2 hours kind of thinking.
(here’s a little snippet of my coffee time thoughts)
I call myself a Christian right?
Most people who know me would label me as such. I walk around most days trying and (most often failing) to love people and if they so chose to listen tell them about how Jesus forgives all sin, He loves you very much. The Sunday school stuff.
If one of my close friends called me tomorrow and asked me to talk about some sin they were struggling with it would not be a problem for me to sit down with them and tell them how grace covers every sin and that they are forgiven. Blah blah blah you know the drill.
In fact I would consider that a very easy task for me to accomplish
Its funny how good I am at showing grace to the people I believe deserve it
Now let me explain the flip side.
If you got me talking about Donald trump and all his policies on immigration or the not so nice words he has spoken about basically anyone who is not a white male I would roll my eyes and make plenty of disgusting faces.
OR take Miley Cyrus. I would probably make the same disgusted faces and talk about how her actions are terrible or how she is a horrendous role model. At the mere mention of her name I would most definitely roll my eyes and say something along the lines of “Don’t get me started.”
Okay so time for a side story (I swear it is relevant just bear with me.)
The other day I was browsing the internet and wasting stupid amounts of time on YouTube (as I often do) when I came across a video of Miley Cyrus. It was at the 2014 VMAs. She received an award that year and in this video she let a homeless man of New York walk up on stage, accept her award, and proceed to give a speech about how the homeless youth are in dire need of our help.
All of this with hardly any mention of her accomplishments. The only role she plays in the video is when the camera shows her reaction and she is sitting there with tears rolling down her cheeks.
Now, I have never been the biggest Miley fan out there but this video really got me thinking.
Why are we as Christians so quick to dismiss the beautiful and grace filled actions of someone we deem as dirty.
Replace dirty with whatever word you wish. Maybe non- believer, lost soul, hypocrite. Any of those words, and I have been equally guilty of using them.
You see, If Donald Trump were to turn around tomorrow and do something very Christ like in nature a lot of us “Christians” would probably point and say something along the lines of “but he did (fill in the blank)” or “It’s for his ratings.”
Since when has Jesus given us permission to Judge the intent behind a persons seemingly graceful display of kindness.
“Jesus again and again says things like the last shall be first, and the poor are blessed , and the rich are cursed, and that prostitutes make great dinner guests, it makes me wonder if our need for pure black and white categories is not true religion but maybe actually a sin.”
As Christians we talk all the time about how we need to love the poor. We post pictures with orphans and have life talks with the homeless. But we turn around and look at the Miley Cyrus’ of the world acting as if it is impossible for us to see God in them.
It is easy for us to show grace to those we naturally feel compassion for.
Isn’t that hilarious though?
That’s the thing about grace. It is indiscriminate.
And the most ironic part is that in terms of sin we do not possess some sort of graph chart to see how we measure up to those people we look down upon with disgust.
I hate to break it to you but we are on a level playing field.
I am sinning when I look down on someone for their sin.
Heck I sin a lot
I have absolutely zero room to talk.
God doesn’t say “Go love the orphans, the hurting, the lonely people. But oh yea forget about those other ones who make you uncomfortable. That jerk at work who pushes all your buttons? Yea just forget about him.”
You see, in this book I am reading there is a chapter called “The Slaughter of the Holy innocents of Sandy Hook Elementary.” The author is a Lutheran pastor and throughout this chapter she speaks on this tragedy and how they had a service at their church to honor the lives that had been lost that day.
She is faced with the task of reading all the names out loud. She reads all 19 to the congregation until she reaches the last one.
Adam Lanza. The Shooter.
It took everything in her to say that name.
with the conclusion of the ceremony she had a beautiful realization. That God came to save all of us. “all of us, and that the lives we’d rather extinguish are still precious to their maker.”
I am so sorry guys.
This gospel that we have all been taught, and continue to teach to others is not the comfortable, plushy, feel good thing so many of us believe it to be.
This is a teeth gritting and mind baffling grace that requires us to take a long hard look at the bloody mess of the cross if we even want to begin to share it.
And share it we must.
Even with Donald Trump
Miley Cyrus
That girl you went to High school with who you can’t stand to look at because you think she is far to loose in her morals.
That man who was driving the car drunk that killed your son
The boy who cheated on you
The Hilters and the Stalins of the World
&I can’t pretend to relate to more then maybe one or two of those scenarios above so please know that I am not trying to minimize anyone’s pain.
What I am trying to say is this,
True Grace. will never. discriminate
We don’t get a free pass when it comes to grace, picking and choosing where we wish to show it.
because Jesus didn’t pick and choose with us.
And is about time we get off our high (and I am speaking to myself also) horses. Take a look in the mirror. Realize we are no more deserving of grace than anyone else. And take the time to reflect long and hard on how the cross was meant for every single one of us.
When we start realizing we can find God in all the wrong people that is when we really start to get it.
I found God in Miley Cryus’ beautiful decision to let a homeless man take her spotlight at the 2014 VMAs
I found God in my boss who most of the time makes me want to rip my hair out.
I found God in a boy who was terribly cruel to me.
When I really take the time to look I see Christ in the people I thought (so stupidly) were way beyond God’s love.
Because nobody is beyond his love.
And on that note,
I wish you all abundant hope and peace on our Saviors birthday.
And I pray you gain the courage to start finding God in all the wrong people.
