August 12, 2003
Lava Lamp
Showed my visiting sister the nearby zebras on the way to the office this morning. Today is jam-packed with getting the shipping report to the printer, with all the quantities and people getting copies delivered to our printer, who ships our magazines out to retailers, wholesalers, etc. They also put our subscriber copies in the mailstream. They have so much mail going out of that plant (up in Midland, MI) that there is a tiny office in the shipping area of the warehouse that is manned by an official postal employee. I guess this issue will hit mailboxes by late August.
I've been dealing a little bit with accusation and forgiveness lately. When falsely accused, do you ever respond? Do you at least try to tell your side / perspective? Of course, context comes into play here. Definitely a hard road to go, but real forgiveness isn't easy then, is it? I imagine myself in Jesus' place (make sure you don't psycho-analyze that one! blame the WWJD bracelets!) during his mockery of a trial. I would have found it virtually impossible to keep my mouth shut, when it appears that simply explaining the truth would end the accusations and grant freedom. Much of the time I take the easy way out and just think, 'Well, He was God, of course He could do that.' I happen to believe that Jesus made the choice to deny his diety while on earth, which leads me to conclude that, with the Holy Spirit's guidance, I too can try to follow His example and possibly ocassionally model something not too far away from it (albeit a temporary and imperfect imitation). I think opposite direction taken to an extreme is flawed -- that being the truth that we are wretched sinners taken the next level to being incapable of not sinning and for the duration of our time on earth in a state of constant sin. I don't buy that. Where does obedience, choice, spiritual disciplines come in? What about the passages that refer to being "once" dead in our sin? What about the freedome spoken of in the Bible? It's a tenuous balance and a tricky theological debate that, like predestination, involves quite an element of mystery.
I'll choose to forgive and make the effort to go another mile (or another day, or another hour), and face the next challenge, temptation, bridge when I come to it.
