Two Things That Might Make Love Easier

I just wish it were easier.  All these people with all these issues.  The kids.  The bosses.  The students.  The spouses.  The church members.  Insecurities.  Selfishness.  Pride.  Control freakishness.  Idiosyncratic anger. The people in the 12 items or less lane who are trying to sneak by with 13 (lying/cheating/selfishness).  The people who don’t go when the light turns green because they are putting on their mascara (vanity!).    Just get it together, people.  Snap out of it.  I’m tired of living with your sinful attitudes.  It’s making me crazy and I just don’t have the energy to deal with it.

We all have been there… getting bruised by someone’s sin or at least witnessing it.  Hopefully, we respond in generous grace and issue the Good News which leads to repentance and holiness.  Usually, though, we dig out something from our own sin-set and throw it back at them, self-righteously and arrogantly.  Most of the time we are frustrated because their sin ruins our comfort and control.  Or we are worried about how this sinful person will make us look.  We are only worried about their sin when it affects us negatively rather than being burdened about the sin itself and how it stands against a Holy God. 

When someone is standing before me being selfish, it is then I have to remember two things.  The first is that Jesus came for people Just Like This.  He came for the sinners.  He came for the sick.  He came for the people who needed saving.  And there I find the second thing: He came for me.  I, too, need a Savior.