Monday, June 13, 2011

I'm a Work in Progress

Imagine you rear-ended a car at a red light. Imagine it was a black Dodge Challenger. Imagine before you could get out of your car lights started flashing from the Challenger’s grill and dash. Imagine two uniformed officers got out of each side and walked back to look at the damage, then at you. That’s one guy I don’t want to change places with.

It’s bad enough to hit someone, even if the damage is minimal. It’s another if the guy you hit is the law you’re required to report to when you do so. It’s not a time to ask if we can just take care of this privately and not have to deal with the police. You’re nailed. Not only are you going to pay for the repairs (or your insurance will) but you’re going to pay a fine.
Because we’re accident prone we live with the hope of always getting away with it—not get hurt, not hurt someone else, not get caught, not be punished. We’re hoping for mercy not justice. We’re wanting someone to say, “Oh, don’t worry about it,” not, “Okay, that will cost you X.”

For some reason we believe we deserve mercy rather than justice. Maybe it’s because we tend to average our wrong and grade ourselves on a curve. Compared to what I see around me, I’m just not that bad.
But guilt is guilt. We either are or we are not guilty. We can’t be just a little bit guilty.

I’ve been stopped speeding. And I truly was at the moment. But two miles back I noticed I was under the speed limit. When I asked the officer to average my speed he laughed. I was guilty because I was speeding at the moment I was caught.
Nobody wants that kind of scrutiny. I don’t want to be judged by one moment of one hour of one day of one week. Look at the over-all. We can’t stand up to that close of examination. Back up and take a broader look at my life. If anything use binoculars but not a microscope.

God, who has the right to examine anytime and in any way, happens also to have a really good handle on mercy and judgment. Not so sure I want you judging me but I’m pretty comfortable with God doing so.

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