I hated being accused of something I didn't do. Being accused of a mistake through no fault of yours can be the worst feeling one can get. And it always seem that a lump get stuck down your throat. It feels as though God suddenly struck you dumb. Nothing comes out and it gives the tormentor more ammunition and satisfaction to rant on and on and on... coz he feels that the reason you're keeping mum is you're wrong and he now got the right to speak his mind.
Somehow, from childhood, I always get the blame. And when I grew up, I tend to be more accomodating and tolerant towards stuffs that happen around me. Perhaps I'm slow to articulate, didn't know how to defend myself and didn't want to come forth as a confrontational person. I think it's time to stand up and say things like, "Hey, I'm no pushover. I'm not intimidated by whoever you are. You can be my senior, my boss, but status doesn't gain you respect; how you carry yourself does. I've my rights too!"
Sad to say, even in the 21st century where we're right now, the problem that plagued our ancestors still haunt us today, even with the advent of technology like Bluetooth, Skype, e-mail - miscommunication; and I believe this will go on for future generations to come. Technology can't solve everything. At least not this, from what I see, not now, not ever. I quote from a powerpoint presentation someone sent me recently, "Know that 2 persons can see the SAME thing and yet have entirely DIFFERENT interpretions." The fundamental problem of communication still baffles us even with more gadgets and infrastructure in place. This thought always comes to mind, "Did he heard wrongly or did I not make myself clear? Somehow the message got lost in space. Lost in translation" This lead to many a misunderstandling and the way people react to it may result in strained work relations.
It never fails to amaze me how people can carry grudges in their hearts for years. They remember who had wounded them. The memory is etched deep within the inner walls of their heart. And they can't let go of the hatchet. So each time they see that person, they are reminded of the old hurt till it burns. And I'm actually ashamed to say that it's not exclusive to ladies. I know a pair of my college guy classmates who didn't talk to each other for 2 whole years just because one guy stood the other up once. And they were close friends for more than 2 years before that. Thankfully, they've reconciled, but not before we graduated from college. So who's childish now, who's the big baby? Are we adults, being so-called more 'intellectually developed' worse off than our children? C'mon, grow up! Didn't we encourage those kids who got into fights in school to shake hands and be friends again? Why can't we do that for ourselves? Well, if I were first to say sorry, it would mean I admit I'm at fault right? It always boils down to that pride issue uh... I won't burge until he offers an apology. I guess that's why Christ descended with forgiveness and love. If we could save ourselves, we wouldn't need a Saviour, would we?
Jesus once set a guilty woman free from her accusers by showing that the people who were judging her were just as guilty of sin as she was. “All right, stone her,” he said to the religious leaders who were ready, with stones in hand, to deliver the judgment she indeed deserved.
“But let those who have never sinned throw the first stones!” John 8:7 NLT
This incident shows us something very important about our purpose as Christians living in a world of sinners. Our job is not to pass judgment on sinners, but to identify with them. The Pharisees and religious leaders were trying to separate themselves from this sinful woman they had found in the act of committing adultery. By judging her, they were going to be able to feel much better about themselves. Jesus put a stop to their little charade by putting them in the same boat with the woman they were accusing. They were just as guilty.
It is so tempting to think, especially after being a Christian for a while and spending a lot of time around Christians, that you are better than other people. You start to separate yourself from sinners, forgetting it was your sin that brought you to Christ in the first place. I know this because I’m so good at it.
The Gospel comes best from people who identify with the sins of others, because they have become so familiar with their own sins. It is noted in the account that as the self-righteous leaders were convicted by the presence of sin in their own lives, “they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest.” John 8:9 NLT
That makes sense. The oldest should be the ones most aware of their own sinfulness. There comes a time in your life when you can’t fool yourself anymore. There were probably a few young, arrogant idealists who hung on as long as possible, but even they had to finally give in to the truth about their own guilt.
The proliferation of both spoken and unspoken judgment found primarily within us, the Church, has forced many into the world, unarmed and without knowing a Christian friend and mutual sinner. We are constantly trying to separate ourselves from a world that Jesus wants us in. Not only that, he wants us to see our own sin and not make such a big fuss over everyone else’s. We seem to always use a different moral scale for ourselves and for others. We tend to be more lenient on ourselves and stricter and more harsh on other people's sins. We always think he or she is a bigger sinner than I am. That's why our prayers are sometimes focused on other people's struggles, rather than our own. We need to pray for our sins as well. Our sin is our connection with our neighbor, our salvation is our hope, and the good news of the Gospel is our message.
People can spot a mile away the hypocrisy of the Gospel of forgiveness of sin coming from someone who thinks he himself doesn’t need it. Somehow somewhere, we've lost it. The meaning and significance of His redemption, of His Coming. We think just because we are Christians, we don't need His cloak of forgiveness as much as non-believers. Ya, we're bigger than those minor sins like gambling, pornography and addiction. We have overcome those. They don't bother me anymore. Often we let our guard down. And the enemy loves to strike when we least expected. Christians need to realise that they are as vulnerable to sin as any other non-believer. Your arrogance and overconfidence may cause your downfall. You are your worst enemy. That's why we need a daily dose of His love, His Word to sustain us thorough our daily battles. Claim His victory, sound the horn, raise the banner, we are more than overcomers!
“When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God Almighty.” Jeremiah 15:16
Anorexia and bulimia are mind-crippling diseases that only function where food is plentiful. There are way too many starving people on this Earth, but most of them can’t help it. Where they live there is not enough food to go around. It is ironically tragic that people can starve to death in the midst of plenty.
What happens in the physical world is almost always an illustration of something like it in spiritual realms. And in spiritual terms, there is nothing more tragic than to have Christians starving spiritually with an overabundance of Bibles and teachers everywhere.
I don’t know a lot about anorexia and bulimia, but I do know that they are fueled by a culture that glorifies being thin, and that those who purposely starve themselves have a false view of themselves as being overweight. They look in the mirror and see a fat person regardless of how thin they are.
The quote comes to my mind, "I'm not who you think I'm. I'm who I think you think I'm." Make sense to you? We're constantly shaped by how we think the world perceives us. Unless you live by yourself and is self-sufficient, as long as you interact with human beings, we're susceptible to imprisoning ourselves by our own assumptions and presumptions of what others think. Sometimes, we are confused as to who we really are. Identity crisis they call it. I know impressionable teenagers suffer frequently from that. Well, I did when I was that age. We all went through that phase in life. Becoming, or pretending to be someone I wasn't that is.
The spiritual implications are obvious here as well. Our culture is awash in its own shallowness. We even glory in it. Shallowness and stupidity are celebrated in many of our most popular movies. I worry that as democracies begin to flourish around the world, it seems that the lifestyle of American culture goes along with them through the power of music and entertainment. We are exporting our own emptiness. And yet when we look at ourselves in a spiritual way, we look fat with so much cultural Christianity. Never in history has a culture looked more Christian while being so spiritually dead. We are, indeed, the spiritually anorexic.
What changes this picture is a commitment to the truth of God’s Word and a constant diet of it in our spiritual lives. And you have to do this yourself. No one can save an anorexic person; each has to decide to eat. The Word of God is spiritual soul food, and if you are spiritually starved, that’s only because you are not eating. We need to get a more realistic view of ourselves. We may look fat to ourselves, but in truth, we are thin, near death, and we need to eat – and food is plentiful.
Just pick up your Bible and feed.
