October 03, 2013
Blowing Smoke
I think it would be a great offense for a smoker to deliberately
blow smoke in the face of a non-smoker. Yet time and again we see people throwing
their personal agendas – racial prejudices, sexual orientation, and religious
beliefs – in the face of others. My initial reaction to such situations is to
put those people on my dislike list. However, I just realized that it is not actually
the person I dislike, but it’s their rudeness in those circumstances.
Merriam-Webster defines rude as: not having
or showing concern or respect for the rights and feelings of other people: not
polite. Obviously we can’t make anyone respect our rights, but we
can expose their actions as rude, even if that person happens to be a fellow
believer. “Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is
not rude, it is not self–seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record
of wrongs.” (1 Cor 13:4-5 NIV)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----I take it, then, that we would not expose such actions as rude out of our own desire to steal some advantage which that other person might have. Or that we would not do it to spotlight some attitude of our own which we think to be greatly good. Or because we might think of ourselves too highly. I take it that we would not want to simply block that persons rights to his own feelings, maybe while trying to gain from his changed disposition, or that we haven’t just boiled over in wrath and want to hurt him. And finally, I take it that we are not considering ourselves to be the librarians of everyone else’s evils.
-----But I take it that you are right. I love the exposure of humanity in the person of Solomon. His whole life reveals the shake-bag of good and evil, wisdom and foolishness, success and failure that we each are. This truth draws out the necessity of graciousness and criticism, tolerance and constraint, and fellowship and avoidance. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…” (Eccl 3:1)
-----The season for exposing another person’s rude actions would be the one in which such exposure benefits him. The season for not is that in which it benefits yourself. And, as we experience from nature, most times are the mixed effects of two seasons - a little rain and chill this moment, more shine and warmth the next, followed again by some rain and frost tonight. That's what makes it so difficult to know when to expose, or when to hold your piece.
-----Taking advantage for your neighbor of this, a gentle, little exposure of his evil done out of your love is an action hopeful of biasing the weight of good within his shake-bag. And "So what!" to the gain of any good or evil in our own. For such exposure isn’t at all about ourselves; done righteously it is entirely about building up another person. Like pitching marbles onto scales enough times might tip the scales to that side, enough exposures done with influential manners may change the seasons of another’s heart.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Post a Comment