I can attest this week that the Word sure cuts to the core of your heart! As I pondered the answer I got yesterday, I realized how judgmental I had been.
It was as if there were a magnifying glass or a camera lens on my friend’s sin and that’s all I could see. I was focused in on the sin. Oh my, I am so not proud of myself.
As I realized that sin is sin, it made me think of my own sins and how I’d spent years covering up many hoping you wouldn’t find them. Do you do that too? Yea, Adam and Eve did that too. But God didn’t go looking for their sin in the cool of the garden – He went looking for them!
We can all agree that no one is proud of their sin. But can you imagine if that’s all anyone saw when they looked at you? SIN.
I’m proud to announce.
I asked God to forgive me. I decided to take the Graffiti Study and Do challenge this week, but put a little spin on it. I’m sorry! I know I’m breaking out of the challenge I wrote, but this is actually more out of my comfort zone for some reason.
So guess what I did?
I picked up the phone and asked my friend to lunch. I was nervous — don’t know why because she is a friend. She said yes! So I’m thankful for this God-appointed lunch. Well, that’s thankful with a dose of nervousness on top. Then topped off with a big scoop of YIKES.
Many scary questions pop-up in my head that make me want to cancel.
Oh, but I won’t.
I want to know her better. I want to hear of her side of the street. Oh, I’ll listen and love.
And most importantly I want her to know she is loved. Not only by me, but by Jesus himself.
Have you caught yourself staring at the sin and not the person?
Do you need to join me in this challenge and invite that person to lunch?
Oh wow, I LOVE this post! In the study I started yesterday, we talked about the ways people had judged us in the past. And that the worst “judgers” were usually hiding dirty little secrets of their own, which was every single one of US! And then we looked at the original dirty little secret of Adam and Eve!
I love how the Graffiti study is splattering us all over the place!
Yes, it’s totally messing with me this summer – my splatters feel like they are everywhere. Your comment reminds me that when I first started teaching at the Annex, substance abuse treatment facility of the county jail, led the first study I wrote called Dirty Laundry Secrets. It’s all about your comment and how to let them go and let Christ (the Launderer) was us clean.
so glad He is with us in our messes and shows us our stuff!
Girl – AMEN to that!!!
So proud of you, Alene, for taking your friend to lunch and for sharing it with us…I think the more I see my own sin in light of God’s total and complete holiness, then the less likely I am to judge…not that I have perfected this, of course…still in process…which is what I wrote about in my post today…
Our lunch is tomorrow. I’d love prayers as we meet at 11:30am. I’m excited to visit just friend to friend and tell her how proud of her I am. She has come so far since I first met her when she was living on the streets. Hoping over to read now friend –
praying right now for your lunch tomorrow :) let me know how it goes…