Yesterdays graphic was very washed out on some browsers/operating systems. I have no clue as to why. I looked at on 3 different systems and all 3 looked very different.
This was not meant to be an eye test.
Normal babble resumes next hour.
This will be a relatively simple post. I’d like to thank Jesus for not just dying on the Cross but for coming back with the promise of eternal life for all of us.
One Cross, One Salvation.
He took on all of our sins and carried them away. He paid a terrible price in the beating and death that He endured. But He came back. And He will come back again.
That’s the joy of Easter: no matter how badly we screw up He will continue to forgive us. And that prompted me to think about how we can pick up some of that load and lighten His just a bit.
I realize that our access to Heaven is through His Grace. But I have to wonder if we couldn’t work just a bit on sinning less while we’re at it. We all sin. We all hate to have that little fact pointed out to us. But it’s true.
I have a dear friend who hurls Matthew 7:1 out whenever the topic comes up. That’s the one about “Judge not lest ye be judged.” Most Christians don’t understand the point of that gem. The fact is that Christ is not telling us not to judge the merits of other’s actions, but to be aware of the fact that we’re subject to the same scrutiny. Attached to that interpretation is the one where we’re being told not to judge in the eternal sense and condemn that person to eternal damnation. Instead we’re being told that it’s a good thing to evaluate our own actions at the same time we look at others. Get our own slate cleaned, put our own house in order.
We judge constantly as humans. It’s how we order our universe. We judge the food we eat and pick favorites. We judge rape and murder to be bad and acts of charity to be good. We judge all the time. And I am suggesting we judge a lot more than we are at this point in our history.
The human race, especially Americans, have abdicated the use of judgement in ordering our lives. We won’t open our mouths and say, “That’s just wrong. I can’t abide that, and you probably should do it differently.” We’re so afraid of being “judgemental” that we accept anything. And we’re paying for it in how Jesus will ultimately judge us.
My friend gets mad at me when I talk about this topic. And I understand why. Someone in their life, someone who’s a loudly professed Christian, judges them in the way that Jesus explicitly abhors – the “you’re going to burn in Hell” variety of judgement. It hurts. None of us wants to be treated that way.
But there is a positive side to being judged by others: it helps you reset that moral compass that you may have let drift away from “true north” in your travels. It happens to all of us – God knows I’m a major screw-up and sinner. But when it’s brought to my attention it does give me pause and gets me to think hard about what I’m doing.
On this Easter Sunday I’m asking you to do a little more judging in the next year. Judge yourself first. Get your act together and sin less. Listen to the judgments of others who are righteous about how you are proceeding – they may have a really great point about where you’re headed. And judge others more in the next year. Do it with kindness, more as guidance than as a hammering. Offer your input in the way that Christ himself did while he was on Earth. Do it out of love. Help them find the way to the Cross that we all seek. There’s nothing wrong with judging as long as you can stand the scrutiny yourself.
Ultimately we’re going to be judged one final time. Just like in sports it doesn’t hurt to practice as often as you can to be ready for the championship game. The judge we’ll all face knows about sins – He carried ours away 2000 years ago and came back with the good news that life eternal was there for us to have if we’ll just follow Him.
I hope each of you has a blessed and joyous Easter.
Each day I get emails from the blogs I subscribe to in my spare time. (Cue the hysterical laughter. You can subscribe to this train wreck in the upper right corner. Please take a minute to do so right now, as another fabulous give-away is coming up in April.)
Two of the authors are my friends Rajdeep Paulus and Larry W. Timm. I enjoy them as friends and look foward to hanging out with them at writers’ conferences. They are both funny, upbeat, and kind people.
But what I really love is reading their work. Today Rajdeep has a great post for you to enjoy: “Shattered Glass Vase… An Easter-ish Story” Once you’ve read it you’ll understand why her kind heart touches mine.
Larry, on the other hand, is seriously ill and is my brother-from-another-mother. His post, “Top 10 Signs You May Have Hired a Bad Agent” is just one in a series of lists he’s churned out that have him on the NO FLY list at all major airports. And 6 bus terminals.
So take some time today and check out my beloved friends and their blogs.
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Today’s keyword bingo winner is: Hell’s Kitchen! Yeah, I love Gordon Ramsay.
Santa needed a change!
Less than 50 calories but priceless in my day.
I don’t spend a huge amount of time at the V.A. Hospital in Minneapolis. I’m a disabled vet, but God has blessed me with good health in general and my disabilities are fairly minor. I have lousy hearing and some crunched parts but my day-to-day is pretty good and I don’t think of myself as disabled unless I have to request a repeat from somebody for the third time. Doggone ears.
On the day this picture was taken I was there for an appointment with my wife (also a vet) and I was killing time in the waiting area of a quiet wing of the hospital. Just me and my Kindle reading about Winston Spencer Churchill in William Manchester‘s “The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965.” Sitting in my spot, drinking coffee and enjoying a piece of fudge (red velvet cake fudge – it should be illegal (don’t tell Michael Bloomberg)) when a man comes wandering down the hall thanking every vet he sees for their service.
I was next. He was a volunteer with a fanny pack full of Life Savers. He just wanted to thank each of us for our service. I was touched. And then I was amazed. As I looked around and saw the sacrifice of these men and women. I lost some hearing and ache on occasion. And they are on crutches, artificial limbs, and sporting wheel chairs about. There were more wheelchairs in sight than anywhere else I’d ever been. It was like a freeway of men in wheeled chairs. And a lot of older couples taking the last chapter of their lives together as a joint journey.
There was a lot of love in sight that morning. We all had our service in common. Smiles were easily exchanged and greetings flowed as though we’d known each other all of our lives. In some ways we had known each other – at least since we all got off that bus on some parade ground in the dead of night and stood on painted footprints waiting for the drill instructor to finish shouting at the last few bodies flying out of the door. At that moment we were all born into the family of those who had served.
I probably spend too much of my time thinking about that service. But surrounded by my comrades at the V.A. it reminded me for the 10,000th time that I wouldn’t have given it up for anything. It made me who I am today.
And it got me a Life Saver on that winter’s morning. And the thanks of a man whom I’d never met before. Just because I’d raised my hand and taken an oath a very long time ago.
Are you one of the less than 5% who’ve served? Are you the spouse, son, daughter, father, mother, brother, sister, or friend of one who served? Have you thanked them lately? We don’t wait for the thanks, but it is certainly nice to hear it said out loud.
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Today’s keyword bingo entry is Kardashian. Yeah, I’m reaching, but those people have to be good for something other than the cover of the tabloids.
