“accepting one another
and forgiving one another
if anyone has a complaint against another.
Just as the Lord has forgiven you,
so you must also forgive.
Above all, put on love — the perfect bond of unity.
Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically,
as something done for the Lord and not for men, knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord.
You serve the Lord Christ.”
Colossians 3:13-14, 23-24
Accepting someone as they are is hard as ...never mind. You get the point.
Our love is very conditional with one another. We don't accept thieves, back stabbers, offenders, rampant liars, or judgmental bigots very easily into our hearts of love. They remain kept as far away as possible from the tender inner places of our vulnerable selves. Most of the time, we cannot accept them at all, because accepting them into the hearts of our sacred homes would be risky. They appear to be holding knives and bags ready to ransack the place and leave us devastated, robbed of precious things like peace and comfort, and ultimately just leave us with nothing much to call a home any longer. So we keep those meddlers out and only open the door of our hearts to peaceable kindred folk who have manners and maybe even come bearing gifts. Those kinds of people we welcome, but of course at the first sign of trouble, say a careless spill on our expensive rug which is not compensated for, we politely make a mental note never to invite them over again. They become unaccepted into our heart's central home, because who knows...such a careless person, albeit accidentally, might cause our home more trouble than good, and that would not be good. The upkeep of our hearts is of utmost importance, because there is where we find our existence and status. Take away one or the other and we are as good as dead.
So for God to speak and say that we are to accept one another, and yet doesn't mention conditions, He implies that none are mentioned for a reason. Because God never forgets to mention something. If no conditions are given then it is more fitting to say that no conditions exist.
Forgive. This, too, is quite distant from our tangible reach. To forgive means that there was first an offense. Here's one definition of the word, offense: the act of attacking.
Hmm so what does it mean to forgive someone who has attacked us? That's highly unlikely to happen when we think of a woman being attacked by another woman who just walked in on her sleeping with that woman's husband. In this scenario both women were attacked or offended by the other. One is more blatantly physically and the other is emotionally. Both are equally painful, and both eventually intertwine because the body and mind are never really separated. So here God would be saying to forgive, and our two ladies would probably look dumbfounded at the mere notion of forgiveness. But regardless of how they take it, it is what God says to do. So another conclusion, if we persist on God being God, is to say that forgiveness is impossible to organically feel and desire to do, but nevertheless it is what we must do. The bible is saying that we must do what is impossible to do. Pretty much.
Hmm. We are told to do what is impossible to do. Accept. Forgive. So where does that leave me?
Well, it feels like I'm stuck between bad and bad. Crap on the left and crap on the right, in fact I'm just in a small windowless container of crap.
Really.
Does that suck? Um yes. But the truth that that sucks does not negate the truth that that's the case. Just because I hate the way something is doesn't mean that it is always going to change. If I hate the rain, will it now never rain? No. I'll just hate the rain, and when it rains then something I hate will be happening.
So back to impossible things that I am supposed to do according to God.
Basically, I can't do these things. I can't accept untrustworthy people into my heart, I can't forgive painful attackers that just want to cause me pain, and the whole notion to put on love is like crazy talk. Basically it's not only saying to accept and forgive, but to like them too! Like the two ladies are to forgive and accept one another and then to hug and feel like they can't live without one another. That is so weird.
Yet it's in the Gospel. It's God's words, and for those who believe that God is good, then His words mean wisdom for us to understand. Otherwise you end up like the analogy of someone not liking rain on a rainy day. It sucks. Yes it does suck when you hate rain and it rains. But is there another way to live?
How can we take in God's Word and still survive?
The only answer I can see that continues to make God good and me survive is this:
To not fear death and to desire the river rushing floods of highest love as mine.
In other words, to have our heart homes beat up is good, and to have pain and struggle is good. That means what I think is good is not good and what I think is bad is not bad.
When I'm caught in the middle of making a big or little decision, and the atmosphere of it all is "which one is right and which one is wrong" I need to remind myself of the above resolve of God's truth. That every decision I make is not between right and wrong. But between two GOODS. There is a right or a right.
Because we make decisions based on our desire to go on living. We want to live and we don't want to die or have our heart homes demolished. We don't want our physical bodies or our minds to be in pain.
We might not like the bible to show us that this way of living is a life constantly in fear of death, or as constantly resisting God's wisdom and love, but just because we don't like it doesn't mean that it's not true.
Accept and forgive, and put on love. But that would be to face Death! Yes, and we can face death when we look to our Lord Jesus who first faced Death and slapped him in the face and told us to do the same. Jesus rose again and sat next to God the Father and prepared for us a place where He now is. To be seated in fullest love, highest glory, and most brilliant joy.
Through Jesus we enter into the impossible confidently. He first defeated death, and now what was once impossible became possible. We no longer have to live in that sphere of being afraid to have our heart homes demolished, because what if it was our very hearts that were leaking poison undetected by us? What if all along, Death wanted us to hold our hearts and bodies and minds so dearly because that is precisely how we will be swallowed by Death? That would certainly change things.
As for decisions, I bring this up because today I had to make a choice between two conflicting commitments and it was bothering me so much. I spent 4 hours debating what to do with essentially 30 minutes (the time difference that would go from one thing as opposed to the other choice). I did this because I wanted to do the right thing. I wanted to ask God what I should do. And what I found at the end of that time was a reminder that for me there is no longer right and wrong. Because the moment I believed in Jesus is the moment everything I did became right and all the promises I wanted became "yes" in Him. So it is not about right and wrong decisions but about walking in God's will.
Which I am, and everyone is, because God's will is not contingent to happen on our ability. It happens because He wills it first. My position is thankfulness to be in His will because it is good news for me! It might not be good news for the person who doesn't know God, making it hard to enjoy what God says to do (like accept and forgive) not to mention be cut off from Him forever! But for us who believe, we are no longer fighting death and sin, but we are being transformed day by day, choice by choice, all in line with what God ordained for us beforehand so that we walk in it. When I make a choice between this or that, I must remember that I am deciding between a right and a right not between a right and wrong. I use what God gives me, since according to 2 Peter 1:3 I have already been given what I need to live in God's will, meaning I have a mind to think, people to ask, and lungs to pray, and so forth. And I strive not against a right and a wrong, but I strive (cuz it is a struggle) to be placed back under God's real grace which began the day I believed. To stand under the waterfall of grace and His rain to my desert soul and know that what I end up doing was the way I was intended to go.
Hehe
Jmegrey
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