God and Me-I'm a Rightfighter

God has really been challenging my rightfighter spirit. (The part of me that wants to be right, that wants to nail people with the truth.) God's been challenging me to stretch my grace vocabulary, to recognize that much of what I think matters, especially much of the "sin" I see in other people's lives, really shouldn't matter that much to me. I have a tendancy to want to label the shortcomings of others. I think the church as a body does too. We look at people's lives and we're willing to overlook smaller things but not big things. I have a hard time seeing God extend His grace to people who believe they are gay, who cheat on their spouses, who can't "fix" a simple sin like swearing. At the same time, I can easily overlook faults of the person who shares too much information about their friend, the person who stretches the truth to avoid a problem, who is overly critical of their spouse, minister, or friend. With those more innocent faults, half the time I don't even see them as a problem; I just keep on trucking through life while execusing those behaviors away.

We like to say things like "Hate the sin but love the sinner." While perhaps theologically true, in a relational sense, it's pretty ugly. We only want to apply it to the first group of sins, the ones that seem a lot more sordid. Maybe because we don't know as many people who are guilty of those kinds of sins, so it seems pretty safe to say it, especially when we are surrounded by other Christians. Imagine how it must feel to have those words uttered about your own sin, if in the middle of a conversation about gossip, someone said how awful and destructive gossip was and gave specific examples of people who have struggled with it, gave the impression that those individuals could go to church just not MY church, and then said flippantly "Hate the sin but love the sinner."

Truth be told, the first group of things often get lumped together because they are often habitual in nature. And I get all worried that those sinners who can't seem to beat their more obvious sins are going to get off scott free, that they really aren't sorry for their actions, that somehow these sinners are cheating God. In reality, I'm pretty sure God has it covered. He knows the state of their hearts and the state of mine. I think I might actually be surprised at how much time some of these "vilest of offenders" spend in communion with God. After all, people who are continually in a state of brokenness because of their own failures are pretty close to God. Especially when compared to those who feel like their lives are fairly good and righteous.

I get really worried that God might not act in a fair way, that those who fly fast and furious in the face of God will get the same treatment from God as those who work really hard at their faith. Um, news flash...spirituality is not about working hard. And God's love is not based on fairness; it's based on generousity.

I'm not saying there isn't a time and a place for Christians to hold each other accountable or to share truths with non believers. Just that accountability and sharing usually only works when it's based upon a relationship. I know how little time I often spend nurturing relationships with others. And there are times where someone who is caught in sin can be made aware of it by someone random, someone who is just speaking the truth. But too often most of us who speak the truth, speak it crassly and quickly, with only a small dose of love and grace. I think God has just been challenging me to examine my heart for hardness towards others, to root out areas where I don't extend grace, to not be so caught up in the misdeeds of others and if they have really repented.