No Choice!

An interesting aspect about the Christian faith is that to truly follow it, you must surrender all of your rights. To truly allow God to work out His justice in your life, you must become defenseless of any armor that does not come from Him. We are told that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the powers of darkness. Because our struggle is not against flesh and blood, we have no call to use the weapons of flesh and blood.

This was a really hard concept for me to grasp, and it still is at times. When people wrong me, I want to react in a fleshly way. I want to fight back, to wound, to draw just as much blood as has been drawn from me. I want retaliation. I want justice!

And then I remember that justice was done away with at the cross.

To live under justice means to remove yourself from the cover of grace. The absurdity of the Christian faith is that people are not dealt with justly in the way that we define justice. Under the law of justice, we all deserve to go to Hell. None of us deserve to be in God's presence. None of us are good enough or smart enough to be considered an equal with God. None of us can come close to God without His provision. Grace wipes away what we deserve and replaces it with His love.

To deny anyone else that freely given love and grace would be the blackest of returns. Jesus Himself said that if we insist on holding others accountable to the law, then we will also be held to the same standard. Unfortunately, the standard is such that we all fail.

So what does that mean? People can do whatever they want to me without any form of repercussion? I just sit there and take it? It took me awhile to say it, but yes. Yes, you take it.

Does this mean I become a doormat who lets everyone take advantage of me? Not necessarily. We are urged to be as innocent as doves and as cunning as foxes. Yes, take care of yourself, but do it all while honoring God.

This is made easier when you realize who it is that you are dealing with. Every person you meet is a child of God. Each one has their own stories to tell and each one has been crafted by God's hands. God is a protective Father, and He does not take it lightly when people come between Him and His children. It puts a bit of fear in me when I consider how my actions might be preventing someone from having a full and healthy relationship with God. Whether or not they choose to have that relationship, I do not want to be the person standing in the way.

The hard truth is that we are left with no real choice. I have no choice about forgiving someone who has hurt me. I have no choice about showing someone love. I have no choice about treating someone with respect. Each person has a fingerprint of God, and I am left with no uncertain instructions about how I ought to treat them.

Is this easy when I become frustrated or angry or irritated? Of course not. That's why He gave us the Holy Spirit to help tap into His great love and mercy. There is no way I have enough love in my tiny, bitter heart to forgive anyone more than once, and even then it's half-hearted. With God, all things are possible, even loving those whose hurts cut the deepest.

I should probably point out here that I in no way execute this with any degree of proficiency. By God's grace, He has been transforming me more and more into His image, but I am certainly nowhere near completion. The wonderful thing about God is that He doesn't ask for perfection. He asks for my cold, tattered remnant of a heart and offers to replace it with His own. How can I turn down such an offer?