Chismas

I've been considering today the ideas of forgiveness and community and gossip.

Forgiving our enemies.

What is required of us in community?

Gossip.

I think it all comes down to choices. 

To choose to treat the people who do us wrong with kindness.  Sometimes to pursue them with kindness when they don't deserve it.  Forgiving our enemies is about not seeking revenge but Jesus goes further and tells us to love them. 

I've been reading the book Abba's Child, by Brennan Manning, and one of the passages stuck out to me today where he is talking about when Christ said God sends rain on the wicked and the righteous.  God blesses those who curse him and those who love him.  He cares for his children, but he also extends goodness to those who reject him out of hope that they will repent and also come to him.

God's working this out in me right now toward someone I know who has done truly despicable things.  I am beginning to see this person less through judgemental eyes, and more through eyes of compassion.  That God would heal this person if they would turn in humility.  That God's heart is for this and so mine needs to start lining up with that.   Am I wiser than God?  Not so much. 

So I choose kindness.  Not condoning.  Not failing to speak truth.  But speaking it in compassionate love.  God is God and I am not. 

The community thing is still percolating in my heart.  But a lot of it has to do with not trying to be someone else's Jesus.  Not allowing someone to be mine.  There is only 1 Christ and he is not currently on earth.  So no matter whether I stand or fall, no matter if someone who leads me stands or falls, I follow Christ.  My faith is not dependent on the behavior of my fellow humans who are my brothers and sisters and need Jesus as much as I do. 

Which leads me back to part 1.  If someone in my community offends me, my part is to pray for them.  To love them.  To treat them with kindness no matter what their behavior is. 

And to tie it all up in a bow, God gave me this today in relation to an opportunity I had today to gossip.  Satan is a slimy snake and we are not ignorant of his schemes. 

Whoever would foster love covers over an offense,
    but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. Prov 17:9

I choose love.  Not perfectly, but walking with Jesus hopefully, more consistently.