January 02, 2015
Bad Dog
An internet photo of a puppy
that had destroyed a newspaper had the caption, “Bad dogs that are too cute for
you to get mad at.” I might have reworked the caption to read, bad dogs that
are too cute to stay mad at. It’s
interesting that we don’t stay mad at a baby or a puppy, yet for years we can hold
a grudge against a family member, co-worker or friend who has wronged us. The
Canaanite woman who ask Jesus to heal her daughter recognized, “…even the dogs
eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table” (Matt 15:27 NIV). In order
to let go of grudges maybe I could put a new face on those who’ve left me with
an offense I can’t get past — Bad Dog!
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----Jesus said the only sin which would never be forgiven is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Then He says, “…but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Mat 6:15) So. Which is it? I don’t want to think Jesus would be lying to us or even simply mistaking about what God won‘t forgive. If these two proclamations do not mean the same thing, then one or the other is faulty and He would have had no power to take the keys of death and rise from the grave on the basis of His also being imperfect.
-----So, let’s do away with any proposition they are different. How are they the same? Please don’t be bored with me going here so much, but, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,” is a good starting place. His will indeed shall be done. Nothing exists outside His will. That does not mean He wants everything that happens to happen. It is like nothing happens without His granting its OK. When something entirely evil is done to me, on the mere basis that it was done means it got His OK. Therefore, if I do not OK it likewise I am judging His OK. I am saying His OK is wrong by saying my not OK is right. And to judge Him is blasphemy.
-----I am now trying to train an immediately approving perception of everything happening to me, both good and bad (hopefully I will become less irritable and grumpy.) I don’t mean a milk-toast surrender to any conditions an event might throw into my situation. God has granted us both the initiative and industriousness to repair or replace as well as we can or to abandon what can not be repaired or do without what can not be replaced. And even if I then wind up doing without, it becomes a new condition of my existence approved by Him, therefore acceptable to me. You see, I must join Him in His OK in order not to judge Him for it.
-----This calls for a new way of thinking about both the past and the future when someone has thrown destruction into my present. What I enjoyed in the past was nice and proper and God-thanked; what will be in my future will be nice and proper and God-thanked and different. Whether or not I wanted the change cast upon me is not the point, that I want what God approves is the point. So the stuff of my situations and conditions become perceptible as perishable, like they truly are. Everything will be consumed by the fire of the end except the gold, silver, and precious gems we built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ.
-----Accepting the meaning of this difference between the temporal stuff we live amongst and the indestructible stuff He makes of us, any immediate destruction I suffer is so bearable that I can now wish goodness upon both the one who destroyed something of mine and upon myself, too. For that is the eventual finish line for all things eternal, God’s goodness, nothing but goodness, always goodness, and forever goodness. How could I then desire anything but goodness upon someone who broke one of my temporal things? God desires that none should perish. Should I oppose His desire by pronouncing as unforgivable someone who could do no more to me than ruin everything temporal I enjoyed? No. I don’t have that position. Taking it would be blasphemy.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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