Dear Kitty,
Yesterday I talked about how scripture is not a weapon to be whipped out of a holster against someone who is struggling under the weight of natural occurrence.
Today, let’s wiggle the ‘buts’ of grace in our behavior with others.
(If you read that I want you to wiggle your butt, go ahead…I’m all for dancing and will wait for you to shake your groove thang.)
This is one of the worst things about Christian folk and if I’m honest (which I am about almost everything except my weight and how many slices of bacon I took) I’ve wiggled my grace ‘but’ quite a few times.
We do one of those little sins…well, we know that there is no big or little, but at least it wasn’t *gasp* homosexuality or murder…and when it gets pointed out, we wiggle our little ‘but, I’ve got grace.’
We hear a little umpire voice in our head yelling “Safe” as we slide to home on our forgiveness game. The crowd cheers “BUT we aren’t perfect..just forgiven” or “BUT who are you to judge me? or “BUT we don’t cast our pearls before swine!”
Ok..that one burns me. Swine? Really? Did we just really compare another of God’s children to a dirt digging, mud loving pig? Yes, that’s biblically based scripture, but how can we possibly see those outside of God’s grace as reachable when we just lowered them to a pig? What ever happened to the “we are ALL His children made in his image?”
If the Gay Pride guy is a swine and the Murderers are swine based on their sinful nature, then Casserole Baking Chatty Christian Cathy who likes to gossip is also swine. Start rooting for truffles people, we are all in this mud puddle together.
Wiggling the ‘but’ to justify your behavior as covered under grace so you are OK is debauched.
BUT, I’m not perfect, just forgiven… News flash, we are ALL sinners and we ALL fall short and we ALL have the opportunity for forgiveness. We are ALL special that way, but it in no way gives you permission to be a nincompoop or under some kind of special grace umbrella that allows for you to sin with an excuse.
BUT, who are you to judge me… Probably the most whipped out scripture of all Christians when they get caught in shenanigans. “Judge not, lest you be judged.” Glass houses are prime real estate among us humans and nothing burns a Christian more than when a non-Christian points out their bad behavior and plinks a stone against our glass front door.
BUT, God already forgives me… Yep, is that your final answer, because if you truly believe that I don’t expect to ever see you standing in a demonstration against a way of life, posting about the status of someone else’s soul or condemning a different belief system. If God is already looking over your sin list and excusing you, He’s doing it for everyone else…you know because He died for ALL man and ALL sins.
BUT…there is no ‘BUT’ wiggling in the dance of grace and humanity. Quit shaking your ‘BUT’ around in the face of others.
Sure, you are forgiven, but not excused for acting like bonehead.
Categories: july 2013 diary entry
Dear Kitty, 
Dear Kitty, 
Dear Kitty, 
Alycia Neighbours 
reminds me of the one and only time i watched Survivor…at the end, the winner-chick (who was very outspoken about her faith all along) was asked how she could have treated the others the way that she did throughout the game – lying, scheming, cheating, trickery, etc – and still preach her faith. her response was that she was “right with God”, so she simply asked for forgiveness and it was granted. somehow, i don’t think that’s what He had in mind.
Yes, all we have to do is ask to receive the grace of forgiveness, but we would also have to include asking for forgiveness because of premeditated sinning and abuse of free gift given through death with love. Wow…that stings and is going to leave a mark.
My glass house has tons of dings, fingerprints and fissures. I sin daily, sometimes hourly depending on the day and usually doubly on Monday. I have my habits and I sure got some hang-ups, but I hope that I don’t ever hurt another and wiggle my ‘but’ of Christianity as a cozy safety blanket or bulletproof vest.
yes…I believe you have to attempt to live a gracious life. justifying your planned sins with a salve of future forgiveness loses a little something in the eyes of Him, methinks…and believe me, there are MANY chinks in my armor as well. 😉
Chinks…I can’t fathom you having a chink. 😉