There are a number of themes that come through in this forum and even in our own day to day relationships that appear to spark certain responses and it is a valid question for us all to ask ourselves why. There are of course those who would call me a libertine (of sorts) and yet I do not believe that is what I am in my everyday living, but who knows what thoughts I have inside my head. Someone once said: ‘If the police could read our minds; only a small percentage of the population would be outside of the prison bars’. I had a very interesting conversation with a fellow officer at one stage as to when does adultery become adultery? Is it when intercourse takes place? Is it when inappropriate fondling takes happens? Is it when a discussion takes place along the lines of the possibility of a relationship? Or is it when the thought is entertained in the mind and a decision is made to do something about that thought? Might I suggest that in all of these things we focus too much on the sin that we can see where possibly that is just the outcome of the greater sin that is hidden?
I am convinced more than ever that we are all flawed and I more than most and what I require more than anything for myself is the gift of tolerance and understanding from all those who I have contact with. It is also a gift that I covet for myself in my daily dealings with other people. I am further convinced more than ever that people are good and that when we look at others we see in them a mirror of ourselves. We always see other people from our ‘default point of view’. I know that there will be those who will still want to sit on the judge’s bench, and that is OK if they feel comfortable but if we look at the words of Jesus as narrated in the gospels I perceive that it was not necessarily actions that he only condemned but attitudes and abuse of power. The sins that you can see (if they are sins) are really easy to fix – just tell people “don’t do it” and if they persist we have ‘ways and means’ to make you comply; but attitudes of the heart, the intentions, and sins of the heart, are a totally different thing altogether.
FletchPeter Fletcher
Former
Australia
Peter Fletcher
2 comments:
"we are all flawed...and what I require more than anything for myself is the gift of tolerance and understanding from all those who I have contact with"
Tolerance and understanding...what a great world it would be.
I shall tell you now a story about my brother. He did something that was so totally out of character and unbelievable that everyone should have questioned why. Instead they saw only an event and persecuted. He lost his job (officer) and with that most of his friends, home, auto, retirement and most of his world because if HQ says it is so then it must be so. Even if it is a one time action and seems so bizarrely out of place. Is there no one at HQ that is tuned into the spirit? Is there no one who can see past the cover to read the book? What has happened to discernment?
Thank God his family and a few good friends stuck by him full well knowing something just wasn’t right. Time passed. Things happened. He got sick. He got sicker. A few years later when a correct diagnosis was finally made it was recognized that what had happened several years earlier was an early onset symptom of what was yet to come. One totally isolated incident judged by HQs and Advisory Boards and reporters as SIN and an outcast he was. I could tell you more; things that are hard to believe of a Christian organization, hard to believe of Christians, frankly hard to believe of anyone but enough has been said.
My point is that it is not our raison d’être to judge anyone by what something appears to be. Rather we should be listening; listening like we’ve never listened in our life. Searching, seeking, praying…praying in the spirit in ways we never imagined; trying to move in the direction of love and healing instead of in the direction of separation and pain.
So much that was lost would have been gained. At least, in the end, he is with the one who understood all, dancing before his God in a healthy and healed body AND spirit.
Former USA
Sounds familiar. Even Scriptural to me. Before you try and take the splinter out of someone's eye take the log out of your own.
UKT
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