are you like the Son of God?

 



Another year...another season of Lent is right around the corner. Watching the film, "Son Of God" yesterday,  I witnessed the depiction of Jesus' suffering and death once again, flinching with every lash of the whip, grabbing on to anything to hang on to each time Jesus fell. I cried as the nails were nailed in, the grimace on Jesus face so agonizing that I, too, felt the blows of the hammer pierce my flesh.
How about you.....do you also feel that way?
I mean....not JUST when watching any film about the life...and death...of Jesus...but how about in REAL life?

What's that?

"When did I lash Jesus, why, I hardly know the Man?" you say?

Maybe it's high time that you did.

When did you lash Jesus? Was it when you cut someone off in traffic and then, gave them the finger?
Was it when you walked by the food shelf donation box and refused to put something in? Was it when you felt nothing but contempt for the alcoholic who lives in your family? Or the addict?

Did you not also torture Jesus when you made a face at a homeless person? Did you not also torture him when you allowed an evil thought to exist in your mind? Did you lie, steal, covet something that wasn't yours, be it that pad of paper from work, about how many actual hours you put in on your time sheet...what about on your taxes, do you feel it's your fair due to lie there, "they won't know the difference anyway!"...am I right?

We ARE sinners. Every little thing that we do that takes away from another is a lie, is a sin, is nailing that nail into the Hands of Christ! I sin, you sin...and though we try hard, we fall short. I am not saying that I am any better than you, for I am NOT! I also get mad at drivers who cut me off...I get mad when taxes steal away what should be rightfully mine, I worked for it, after all! But it is how we REACT to that situation that makes all the difference!

Jesus taught us that no matter what...we TURN THE OTHER CHEEK! We FORGIVE...we move on past whatever has hurt us. Do not seek anger, or justification, when we feel slighted. Believe me, we have done our fair share of slights to others. Grace teaches us, though, to forgive as well as to SEEK forgiveness.

The two greatest commands Jesus left us with are these: to love God as much as we love ourselves...and to love OTHERS as much as we love God! Love them for their faults, their slights, their disabilities, their color, gender, race, religion and anything else that YOU feel sets them apart from you perception of who you think they "should be." Love them. Love love love....and ask God to show you how you can love them even more. Don't let society's perceptions blur your own thoughts of Love. If society spits in your eye, love others anyway, because it never was about you and society in the first place...it's between you and God. "...narrow is the road and few are the ones finding it..." (Matthew 7:13-14)
Have a blessed day!