May 17
Scripture focus: “This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is." John 3:19-21 The Message
Eventually I finish both my chores and those annoying footnotes. I’m talking to an acquaintance, telling her about my close call with darkness. She thinks I’m over-reacting. “That’s ridiculous,” she says. “You are totally over-analyzing the situation. Stores ought to provide better service than you received. You should have complained to the manager.”
I disagree. Clearly, heroin addicts who steal from grandma’s purse to feed their habit are engaging in dark dwelling behavior. Dateline and 60 Minutes feature tragic tales of evil doers like Bernie Madoff and others who have cruelly treated others. No one argues that this is evil.
But those are simply extremes of the same kind of behavior I engaged in. My impatience robbed me of the compassion and charity I might have experienced much earlier in the transaction if I hadn’t been such a jerk.
Paul Tillich has said that our concerns reveal our God. As I stood at that pharmacy counter, shifting uneasily from foot to foot, aggravated that Ginger was absent and unable to meet my every need in jiffy speed, the only person I cared about was me.
Maybe I am over-reacting. But if so, I pray that I continue to act in such an emotional fashion. Because I believe with all my heart that God loved me enough to show up and give me a great gift – the gift of grace. I can look back on this example and berate myself for my inadequate, terrible defect of character. Or I can think of this incident as a doorway through which the power of grace came running through. God came to my rescue. How cool is that?
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2 comments:
We have so many "in the moment" opportunities during a day, week, etc. I think Paul Tillich hits home when he says that our concerns reveal our God, or at least our God at that moment. Thank you for reminding me that these are opportunities to pause, think and hopefully choose to respond the way God would want me to respond. A gift of grace to me and a gift of grace and blessing to another person. We are all in need of these gifts.
T, you wrote "My impatience robbed me of the compassion and charity I might have experienced much earlier in the transaction if I hadn’t been such a jerk." How often I have let my own impatience rob me of so much of what icould have given to others as well as myself. After my meltdown, the shame would come for "not being a good witness of the Lord." I have sense learned that if my goal is to be a good anything, I need to carefully scrutinize everything I am about to do. Progress not perfection.
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