Mercy and Grace..... and Bacon.

I think the world would be a much better place if we extended the same grace and mercy to others that God extends to us. 

Face it. We all mess up. No one is perfect, I don't care how much you think you are. News flash, You Are NOT. We all screw-up, we all sin and we all have to pay the price. Now granted, some screw ups are worse than others, at least by OUR standards. God does not label sins by the degree of bad to worse. Any sin is punishable by death. From the little kid stealing a cookie to the mass murderer to the gossipy little old lady. But.... imagine the world where, when we turned our lives over to God, and He forgives us and remembers our sins no more if we did the same for each other. 

What if we looked at the guy who used to be the town drunk, but did an extensive rehabilitation program, cleaned his life up, and tried to start life anew, following the God that he found in rehab. What if we didn't always refer to him as the ex-drunk. Or question his every motive, wondering every time we saw his car parked at the convenience store if he was in there buying beer. 

What if we looked at the woman who was wild in high school, and had a baby before she graduated, and didn't think of her as having loose morals. Because she gave her life to the Lord in her 20's, got married and lived a respectable life, or at least she tried to, despite everyone constantly reminding her how bad she used to be. 

What if we spent our time lifting each other up, instead of tearing each other down. What if we didn't try to judge people based on who they are related to. Grouping someone in according to how bad of a reputation others with the same last name have. What if we remembered the Golden Rule, that even nonbelievers learned in school. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." This is Biblical, but even those who never have been to church know this. 

Christians are told that there are two main laws that they are to follow. Love God, and love your neighbor. And who is your neighbor? Everyone. Not just the guy next door. Or the sweet lady across the street. Your neighbor is every single person you know. And we are to love them. 

I struggle with this sometimes. Some people are just hard to love. And as  a reformed hater and grudge holder, I struggle to love people that are just not good people. But I work on it. I try to see life from their point of view. I try to extend grace and mercy when they are mean to me. Instead of being hateful back, which is very tempting, I smile and try to think of something pleasant to say. I don't always succeed, but I TRY. 

Because I know I am not always easy to love, and God always loves me. I know that I can be impossible and that I have done a lot of stuff wrong, but God is always there, with grace and mercy. But as Christians, and even as non-Christians who profess to be "good people", shouldn't we treat each other that same way? There is so much hate in the world. So much name calling. If you look on any national story on facebook and just read through the comments, or on local news reports that are posted, the comments can just get mean and ugly. As good people, why do we feel the need to attack those who don't agree with us? I may not agree with who you want to vote for, but I love you regardless. I may not agree with the baseball team or football team you like but I love you anyway. I may not agree with the life you lead, but I choose not to call you mean names. I might tell you that I think you are not making good life choices, but I will do it with love, and not say hateful things. Life is so short. Why make it harder than it already is by withholding love, and mercy, grace and forgiveness. This was a long lesson learned. I hated people for decades. But God forgave me, so I in return have forgiven others. God extended grace and mercy toward me, so how can I not extend it to others. God does not hold my past against me, so how can I hold someone else's past against them. 

Hey, YOU, remember when....... if you look at someone and want to bring up a "Remember when" make it a good one. Hey, remember when we helped that guy out of the ditch? Remember when we all chipped together to help that guy fix his car? Remember when you gave me flowers because you knew I liked them? Remember the good deeds that people do, let the bad things go, Just like God does, as far as the east is from the west. Forgive. Love. Eat more bacon, because that will definitely make you happier. But for crying out loud! Love each other people! Life sucks bad enough, don't make someone's life harder than it already is. And smile. Life is always better if you smile. oh, and I really meant that about eating more bacon. Try it. Nitrates are good for the soul. :)

The Parable of the Uncle

Once upon a time, there was a wise old uncle who had two nieces. One niece, he had known for her entire life, and even though she had always known him as her uncle, she did not love him. He wanted to be loved and respected by the girl, but instead she turned her back on him. She hated his ways, and decided that she did not want to be his niece, but would rather spend her days happily alone, without a loving uncle to call her own. The uncle was angry at her, because he wanted her to choose him, but he would not force her to love him, to respect or obey him. So he sadly watched her walk out of his life.

But far away lived another little girl, who was lonely, and wished for a family to call her own. One day, she discovered that she had a wise old uncle, and she sought him out. She had not known him her whole life, but she loved him, and when he called her his beloved niece she was happy. She wanted to please him, so she did as he asked, and loved him, and respected him, which is all he ever really wanted. Sometimes when the niece would stray off of the path that the uncle wanted her to stay on, he would chastise her, and she would turn from the things she did that displeased him, not out of fear of what he could do to her, but out of love, because she wanted him to love her, and want her in his life.

Now the Uncle had the power to send her away at any moment, but he didn’t because he loved her. And even though she did the things he wanted, and showed him love and respect, she sometimes still felt sad, because she had missed out on so many years that she could have been with him. She tried to do more and more to please him, wanting him to love her more and more. But his heart was already so full of love for her, that it would never have mattered what she did, he could not love her any more than he did.

But deep down, his heart still hurt for the other niece. The one who had turned her back on him. The one who screamed mean things at him, and walked out of his life. The uncle had two nieces, but only one that wanted to be in his life.

This parable is much like our relationship with God. Some of us have known God from when we were very young. We were born into Christian families, went to church all of our lives and always knew who God was. But we never accepted Him. Or perhaps we did, but as we got older, we turned our back on Him, deciding to go our own way, and do our own thing, away from the loving kindness and forgiveness that He offers us. Perhaps we lost a loved one, and couldn’t understand why God would take someone we loved and needed so much away from us. We got angry. We were hurt, so we blamed the One that we felt was responsible. And we hated Him.

But then supposed someone was not raised in a church, but only came to know God years later. Joyfully we gave our lives and our hearts to Him, wanting only to please Him, and to serve Him with all that we have. Not because we understand that He saved us from hell, but because we love that He chose us to save. We want to do whatever makes Him happy and to obey and respect and love Him, at all times good and bad. We feel bad when we do wrong and disappoint Him, and we want to do better and please Him.

God loves the ones who choose Him, but He also loves the ones who don’t and feels sorrow for the ones who turned their back on all He has to offer. He sits patiently waiting for the one who turned away to turn back, to ask for forgiveness and to want a loving relationship with Him. It doesn’t matter when you were introduced to God. Whether you were nine or ninety. It doesn’t matter how far you got from Him when you were rebelling, or what sins you committed before you knew Him, or after you knew Him. He is patiently waiting for you to come back to Him.

If a loving uncle loves his niece unconditionally, and only wants the best for her, how much more does God love us unconditionally and want only the best for our lives as well.

I pray that all would know the love that God has for them. Regardless to the things you have done. Regardless to how angry you have been at God. Or for your disbelief. I know that people think that the world could not be this messed up if God really existed, but this world is not the realm of God. He is so much better than this place, and He wants us to focus our thoughts and minds on Him, and on heavenly things, rather than the worldly things here below that Satan loves to cause chaos with.