Perspective

  This morning, our pastor brought up an interesting point that has been resonating in my mind, so I'm going to write about it here. He shared that Jesus, when speaking with regular people, didn't spend a lot of time pointing out their flaws and mistakes and what they needed to fix. Instead, He pointed out what they needed to focus on going forward. 

 He told people to follow Him.  He pointed out the blessings of the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, and others. He praised people's faith. The point is, He didn't sit there tearing them apart and telling them everything they needed to do better at. So why do we do that?

 We do that to ourselves, feeling like we have to clean ourselves up and be "good" before we can come to God, before we can serve, before we can... anything. Really, we're letting the enemy win when we do that. We're cooperating with his plan to keep us quietly useless. If Satan can't keep us out of the Kingdom, then he's going to try to keep us from bringing anyone else along with us! The TRUTH is that God loves us and uses us where we are at. If we were perfect, how could anyone identify with us, or us with them, which brings me to how...

 We do that to others. We want people to make things right with us, do what we have asked them to, live the way we think they should. But if God doesn't require that of us in order to be in relationship with Him, then should we do that to others? I think the answer is a clear, No! Now I'm not talking about maintaining healthy boundaries or avoiding toxic situations. I'm talking about regular, everyday relationships. Do you have a disagreement with someone about money? Yes, you should set up healthy boundaries around how you will deal with finances regarding them, but you shouldn't be cutting them out of your life over it. Do you have differing political views with a family member? I hate to break it to you, but God is neither a Republican nor a Democrat - in fact I think He would disagree strongly with both parties! If you are allowing political beliefs to create a separation between you and your family, or even you and your church, you might want to slow down and consider if God is first in your heart still. He calls us to unity and love, not being right.

 Like Jesus, we need to think on what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable. We need to stop getting hung up on differences and start focusing on what we have in common. Instead of judging others and keeping them separate and below us, we need to love them as we love ourselves, thinking of them not as less than us but as more. 

Here's the Thing: Jesus didn't condemn us over the negative, He calls us to the positive, to love!