Mea Culpa: How a light
hearted extrovert fell into cynicism and compassionless living
A pastor friend posted a political
joke on Facebook yesterday that was unkind and unchristian, but that wasn’t my
initial response. In fact, I laughed and thoughtlessly posted it myself.
Going on with my
day, I became somewhat surprised when a few friends posted rebukes on my page,
but many more responding with “like” and defending our right to offend with the
truth.
My original,
defensive thoughts were that those offended were a little more to my left and
were missing the humor, but they were people I loved and respected, so I began
to wrestle with the whole issue.
Then the Lord got
right in my face, when a reprimand came from one of my key leaders (a friend,
brother and a straight up guy) – “There was no healing grace in your post.”
With my intellectual & spiritual pride wounded, I deleted the
post, as quickly as I could get to my computer and wrote personal apologies to
those who had admonished me.
When I shared the
whole incident with my beloved, the Lord’s reproof grew even stronger. “But
you’re the one that so committed to speaking blessing into people’s live.”
She was right. They were all right.
What had just happened here? How could I have become so insensitive, humor at
the expense of suffering? I could see Ann Coulter making the statement or even
G.K. Chesterton, but the Lord whispered clearly in my heart, “Could you see me
saying it?”
With love, not condemnation, our
Father was clearly reminding me that, growing weary and unfocused in the fray,
I had failed to guard my heart, mind and words from the prevailing cynicism of
our day, within and without the Body of Christ. He also exposed the growing
lack of compassion that had been emerging in my heart towards those that were
not like me.
So for those who had the candor and
gumption to chastise me, thank you. For those who laughed with me and defended
my carelessness, I pray we rediscover the balance of truth and grace, renewing
ourselves to being gracious and kind to any and all, even those with whom we
politically and theologically differ.
And to all, would you pray for me, for
one another and with each other that His healing grace would permeate our
lives, cleansing deeply our broken places and releasing his love into the
world.
“The end of all things is at hand; therefore be
self-controlled and sober-minded for the
sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love
covers a multitude of sins.” – 1Peter 4:7-8
Amen and amen.
ReplyDeletePraying. You are a blessing.
Mark, I very well may have been one who laughed with you because I have developed a life long cynical streak in me as well. I do try to guard my cynicism and repent IAW each occasion as I fail on that watch.
ReplyDeleteBut as usual there is another side of this situation that also concerns me... and I believe it concerns God also. That is, we have been given a relationship with the one true God through Jesus Christ (our born again lives) for the fulfillment of God's Kingdom. His eternal plan. However, this nation does not reflect a country that is managed IAW the nature of our God. I certainly understand the spiritual importance of Kingdom fulfillment first - but there should be a subsequent and direct correlation visible in the natural - and there isn't. As such, I try to "spiritually" temper my politics as much as possible - but I have determined that I would rather err on the side of shouting the truth (even at the risk of sounding cynical), than to hide behind compliance of liberals' demands that I keep to my faith (i.e., the truth) in peace and silence. It is obvious that we, the church, and our leaders need this discussion. We (the church) have been hamstrung far too long in American politics by a toothless devil - while we have a responsibility to occupy His Kingdom here and now.