Christianity isn't about pretending that we have it all together. It is caring, loving, and sympathizing. It is having the understanding that we all have sinned. It is a horrible place to get in religion when compassion is replaced with judgment. It is at that point we truly forget who we are...Sinners saved by a gracious God. It is like the thirsty who discover a fountain in the desert later when other parched travelers come desiring a drink they down on their thirst. It is a strange and foreign thing to no longer be willing to be numbered among those who are in need of God's grace. We all need it. We all require it. Scripture tells us that everyone of us has gone his or her own way, the wrong way. By contrast how sweet is the companionship of those who understand that we don't grow to sinlessness we simple grow to understand how much we need Jesus, every day. In the following story there is one who recolonized the fault of another as fault of her own, and instead of pretending she didn't have the problem she did the most compassionate thing she could. She loved.
Come with me to a third grade classroom...... There is a nine-year-old kid
sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his
feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to
stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It's never
happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never
hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never speak to him
again as long as he lives.
The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head down and
prays this prayer, 'Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five
minutes from now I'm dead meat.'
He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her
eyes that says he has been discovered.
As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying
a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the
teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy's lap.
The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself,
'Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!'
Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is
the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him
gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. Al l the other children are
on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is
wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been
his has been transferred to someone else - Susie.
She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. 'You've done enough, you
klutz!'
Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy
walks over to Susie and whispers, 'You did that on purpose, didn't you?'
Susie whispers back, 'I wet my pants once too.'
Thursday, May 14, 2009
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3 comments:
That is such an inspiring little story! Haven't we all been there @ some time or another, just wishing that someone like Susie was there for us. The power of prayer...what else needs to be said???
I love how you use stories like this one, and even your own true life stories to reach us, the people, with God's message. You are an inspiring, dedicated, motivating, and very much loved pastor! Thank you Scott for all you do for our church & for God!
There is an old syaing that I have heard for years, "You catch more flies with honey than vinegar." There is nothing that will win over broken people than love. I was raised in the church and went to a Christian school as well as christian college. The one thing I learned before I surrendered to Christ was that Christians murder their wounded. God, however, does not! When I was hurting the most and my heart was about to grow cold, He placed someone in my life to love me, accept me, brokenness and all. That person witnessed and eventually I accepted Christ, gave God all my hurts and sorrows, broken dreams and heart and He loved me still. I now carry on what I expirenced, with others that are broken, and hope to comtinue till God calls me home! Praise God He loved me!
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