May 07, 2009> 12:57 PM
you do what?
I just rescued my prayer habit by praying the little mid-morning office, and I ran across a line in the Psalm (119) that really bothers me. I've read it, prayed it many times before and it always bothers me, and here's the deal: I think it should bother me, bother us. I'm really thinking that this line shouldn't be one that we utter in ourselves, as Christians, as those who are wrapped up in the Life and Love of Jesus, about anyone. Here it is in all it's anti-glory...
I look at the faithless with disgust; they ignore your promise.
Really? You're gathering up the gaul to say that? I pray it because it's a part of Scripture, but whenever I run across this little ditty, I go into "no, this is not the way God wants me to think" mode. I didn't include it at first, but the line just before that really gives an extra distasteful punch to the whole thought. We should not find this very appetizing...
I have not swerved from your will.
Wow. You haven't? I doubt that very seriously big boy. I have. I have swerved from His will. And I might be tempted at times to "look at the faithless with disgust" but very quickly the hammer of my own faithlessness comes down on my heart and says, "STOP!" No. No. But I see this constantly. I see us doing this. OK, here - was the adulterous woman sitting on the ground before Jesus and all those men, faithless? Was she one of the faithless? Sure she was. Was there anything like disgust in the implied eyes of Jesus toward this woman? It doesn't really look that way to me. How might she have fared in front of some of us? You may not want to answer that question. Just let it lie. The answer is far too depressing.
Even if, and I'm certainly not there - even if we have been transformed into the Image of Christ to a very high degree, I'm thinking our attitudes will not have been transformed in this direction, that we would then be able to look with disgust on all the pitiful, faithless, un-transformed people walking around us. Save us from this, Lord Jesus.
May 07, 2009
> 12:57 PM
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