I'm just going to separate myself now.

As I've said many times before, and am sure to say many more times in the future....I just love teaching the 4s and 5s class at church.  That age group is just so much fun. 

Today as we gathered around to begin the lesson on the wise men, two boys in particular were being rather rowdy.  After asking them a few times to settle down without success, I used the tried and true "Excuse me boys. Do I need to separate you two so we can have our lesson?"  And right away, the one little boy picked up his chair and said to me "I think I'm just going to go ahead and separate myself now." And took his chair to the end of the row to move away from the temptation of goofing off with his buddy during our lesson time.

So I told him thank you and what a good idea it was to move if he thought he wouldn't be able to pay attention sitting by his friend. We moved on with the lesson and all was well.

But as I was retelling the story at lunch today, it got me thinking.  This little boy knew there was going to continue to be problems if he stayed where he was.  He knew I would have to keep scolding him and that he wouldn't pay attention or learn from today's lesson.  So instead of sitting there waiting for temptation to come again, he removed himself from the scene and went to some place where he knew he would be able to pay attention and not get into trouble.

Do we do that? How often do we know that we are in a place of temptation, in a place where we know we are going to get ourselves into trouble, yet we remain there and basically set ourselves up for defeat? How often do we stay in relationships that are wrong for us, continue with behaviors that aren't good for us, go places where we shouldn't be, knowing the whole time that it's only going to end badly?

As soon as we know there's a problem, we should "just go ahead and separate ourselves now."  I think we can all learn a lesson from this little guy and his smart move. The next time we are in a situation where we know we are going to fall prey to temptation, we need to just go ahead and separate ourselves, move away, and get to a safer place.

Here's to continuing to learn life lessons from random interactions with children.

-AA

What does a Christian Look Like?

I've been pondering this question for the past couple weeks, after reading an article that one of my Facebook friends posted.  The author starts out by giving a few anecdotes from his life about the various convictions different Christians (and I'm talking about born-again evangelicals here) have. Like when he was in Scotland and both the Pastor and his wife drank alcohol.  Did that make them unsaved? Nope. Was it wrong for them to drink? Not if they were truly not acting against conviction of the Holy Spirit. Cultures vary. Convictions vary. The way God is working in our lives varies.

But the part that really got me thinking was when the author made this statement:

"It's even worse when Christians expect instant holiness from recent

converts - holiness, that is, in areas where we think we've nailed it."

Just think about that quote for a minute. We expect holiness in others in areas that we think we're pretty solid on. The author used Shia LeBeouf's recent conversion story as an example. I must be really not up on my pop culture tidbits, because I had no idea that this even transpired until I read the article. However, apparently there was a lot of backlash because he used profanities when talking about his conversion. A lot of judgment that his conversion wasn't the real deal. 

Let it be said that neither the author tried, nor am I trying, to make a point of whether or not Mr. LeBeouf is now a saved individual. I hope it is a legit transformation and that he is now figuring out how to start walking this new path. The author brings out the fact that only God knows the heart. We cannot judge whether someone's conversion is legit or not.

The point the author des make is that apparently a lot of people expected Shia to just instantly stop using profanities. Like making a salvation decision suddenly flipped the potty mouth switch to off. It doesn't work like that. And for any of us who have made salvation decisions it didn't work like that. And you know what? Even those of us who have been saved for decades still struggle with various sins.

This brings me back to expecting people to be holy in the ways that we've got it together. Maybe swearing isn't a temptation for you. That's awesome. But you aren't perfect. You have your pitfall areas just like the rest of us. Maybe it's spending too much money. Maybe it's your temper. Maybe it's being an absent parent. Maybe it's whatever. What exactly your sticking point is doesn't matter. What matters is that we are all striving towards holiness, and we all have areas in our lives that we are more prone to sin; areas that seem to constantly trip us up. None of us will achieve true holiness this side of eternity.

So let's stop pointing the finger and judging everyone around us from a seat of personal pride. Let's stop expecting other people to have nailed the same parts of personal holiness that we've worked out over the years.

I don't see Jesus ever doing that in Scripture. And, truly, He would have had a right to. You know, that 100% God, never sinned thing. Now, that doesn't give us an excuse to sin; an excuse to keep up the status quo and to never strive to be a little more holy today then I was yesterday. Again, that concept is nowhere in Scripture. We are to press toward the mark. That means making progress. That means continuing to grow and change in areas where we are convicted. That means maybe coming alongside a struggling Christian and helping them overcome their struggle, not judging them because of it.
It's like we force fellow believers to wear scarlet letters, all the while ignoring that we have one, too.

While I was thinking about all of this on my way home from work the other day, the song "Jesus, Friend of Sinners" by Casting Crowns came on the radio. Some would call it coincidence. I just call it a God-thing. This song just gets me every time I hear it. Give it a listen. While the purpose of this song is to get us to recognize how we are turning people off to Christ by our judgment, the same concepts hold true to fellow believers.


Think about those lyrics for awhile, and pay attention to yourself this week. How many times are you judging fellow believers instead of loving them as siblings in Christ?


"Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers."


-AA