November 09, 2010
Graffiti – Part 2
At the same time as I was confronting the young graffiti artists our contractor came by and was able to repair the damage to the cement. However I have a real distaste for being lied to and I wasn’t going to let this go with a, ‘see that you don’t do this again’ speech. The attitude of one of the girls was particularly defiant and she seemed think she could argue herself out of the situation. ‘I don’t want to get in trouble with my mom. I’m sorry. Do I have to pay for it? Look, I just said I’m sorry!’ Although she was combative, I had to stifle a laugh at one of the lines of her defense, “I couldn’t help it. It was just such a temptation!” I didn’t buy her excuse, but it reminded me that God doesn’t buy my temptation excuses either.
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Gail;
-----As sin came into the world through one man and death, through sin, spread to all men because one man sinned, grace came into the world through one man’s righteousness and spread to many. (Rom 5:12-15) But as the nature of sin does not start or stop at anyone one person, so also the nature of grace does not start or stop at any one person. Since it is something that is both received and given, it can not be only received from God. It must also be passed along to fellow men, because through Christ grace is God’s trumping of sin. Wherever there is sin, grace becomes the cure for the broken fellowship it causes. Whether sin is against you from others or to others from you, the fellowship between you and those others becomes weather checked in the least, or completely broken off at most. But since fellowship is inseparable from God’s nature, it must be inseparable from us for us to participate in His nature. Therefore, whether sin is against us or by us, we must respond to it with the same grace which God has extended to us so fellowship can be maintained all around. Graciousness must become our first attitudinal response.
-----Graciousness is often misconceived as an attitude that overlooks any damage done to you by the sinning party. And humility can chime in with, “Sin against God is great because He is perfect, but sin against me is meaningless because I, too, am a sinner.“ But these are to think the second greatest of Jesus’ commands is to love others and hate yourself. It isn’t. It is to love others as you love yourself. That means you love yourself also, but not only. Therefore graciousness is an attitude fostering address of all damages done by the sinning party, both to themselves and to you. As such, graciousness steers the response to all of the damages and away from any retaliation, for retaliation is an effort to equalize your own damage by causing equal damage while grace is an effort to repair damage. And your damage must also receive repair.
-----Therefore graciousness will lead the confronting of the girls on the street to be for what they consequentially need because of the situation as well as to be for what you need. Sometimes the offending parties need the intervention of the law. Sometimes that will cause undue damage, so all they need can come from mom and dad. And sometimes they don’t even need that. Every situation has its own facts and circumstances for us to contemplate in our practicing godly love and care for one another. Having a spontaneously gracious attitude makes that practice easier, and it makes another way to further His kingdom into the world through inspiring and spurring one another on to doing good things.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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