If Michael reads this... But anybody else can, too...
My friend Mike Airgood is having a crappy day (um, can I type crappy here? Oops, twice...um...)
Talk about Grace and real life. Stuff that he can't do anything about (hurt his back - boy can I relate) and stuff he didn't even do that he's getting yelled at for...
And (while I don't entirely fit in any category for his open "dear John" letter from the American church) his very next post ends up being about love...
I know Mike's not feeling too much grace today...from people. I hope he knows that there are a few of us that will ALWAYS extend the open hand, that there are a few of us who will ALWAYS try to repent and forgive, whichever is necessary, because relationship is WAY more important than being right or wrong.
I just read some posts by some people who see any formal gathering of "the church" as being anti-christ. What they say is that Jesus never wanted buildings and bands and organs and choirs and 1,000 people (or, presumably, 27 people) who don't really know each other to gather together in one building dedicated only for that purpose... that the Church is the people.
Yeah, they're right about that. The Church is the people. But they drew a line that said almost everybody (but the "enlightened") are out and only this small circle is really right... sigh...
But I can still call THEM brothers and sisters in Christ (even though they see me as an anti-christ since I get PAID as a pastor who leads worship in a building purchased and kept up just for the worship of God instead of being a volunteer leader who meets in a different living room every week...or something). Well, I CAN...will I?
You see, that's the thing about Grace. WE don't really have the right to withold it, do we?
And yet, that's exactly what we do.
So, when you don't deserve it (because I don't have all the facts and I'm making an assumption based on...well...my own prejudices and perceptions) I'll yell at you and make you feel stupid.
Can I just say one thing?
I'm sorry.
Whoever is reading this. I'm sorry. I have done just that to so many people at so many times in my life - people I barely know (that STUPID clerk at the store) to the ones I love so much ("how could you be so stupid?!").
And all I want is forgiven.
And all I need to do is forgive...
Sigh...that's the stinking hard part...
So - I don't know what all this really means... I'm praying for Michael... he needs a little extra grace today...and maybe I do too...
Talk about Grace and real life. Stuff that he can't do anything about (hurt his back - boy can I relate) and stuff he didn't even do that he's getting yelled at for...
And (while I don't entirely fit in any category for his open "dear John" letter from the American church) his very next post ends up being about love...
I know Mike's not feeling too much grace today...from people. I hope he knows that there are a few of us that will ALWAYS extend the open hand, that there are a few of us who will ALWAYS try to repent and forgive, whichever is necessary, because relationship is WAY more important than being right or wrong.
I just read some posts by some people who see any formal gathering of "the church" as being anti-christ. What they say is that Jesus never wanted buildings and bands and organs and choirs and 1,000 people (or, presumably, 27 people) who don't really know each other to gather together in one building dedicated only for that purpose... that the Church is the people.
Yeah, they're right about that. The Church is the people. But they drew a line that said almost everybody (but the "enlightened") are out and only this small circle is really right... sigh...
But I can still call THEM brothers and sisters in Christ (even though they see me as an anti-christ since I get PAID as a pastor who leads worship in a building purchased and kept up just for the worship of God instead of being a volunteer leader who meets in a different living room every week...or something). Well, I CAN...will I?
You see, that's the thing about Grace. WE don't really have the right to withold it, do we?
And yet, that's exactly what we do.
So, when you don't deserve it (because I don't have all the facts and I'm making an assumption based on...well...my own prejudices and perceptions) I'll yell at you and make you feel stupid.
Can I just say one thing?
I'm sorry.
Whoever is reading this. I'm sorry. I have done just that to so many people at so many times in my life - people I barely know (that STUPID clerk at the store) to the ones I love so much ("how could you be so stupid?!").
And all I want is forgiven.
And all I need to do is forgive...
Sigh...that's the stinking hard part...
So - I don't know what all this really means... I'm praying for Michael... he needs a little extra grace today...and maybe I do too...
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