The Good Life... a weblog about life, technology, and the Opera Web browser

Just to let ya'll know, my friend is having a wonderful day. :) Mahna, mahna!

And now, a joke:

What was Beethoven's favorite fruit?

Ba-na-na-na!

*grin* A good pun is its own reword.

Tonight God revealed to me that a lot of the troubles I've been having lately have to do with the way I react to situations I don't like: I usually run away from them. Case in point, this morning I saw someone that it would have been difficult to talk to. Instead of facing the situation, I ran out another door, avoiding it entirely. I find myself doing this a lot of the time when I'm in a situation that I don't like. For instance, when I face another person who is gossiping, I often run away instead of confronting the person about it.

I despise gossip. I hurts me to see people torn down and I just don't know how to handle it. I validate my whole running away by recalling something I heard a while back: God isn't impressed by us sticking around sin to see if we can resist, but rather when we run away from it. However, I think there is a third (at least) possibility that I haven't considered. What if we confront the sin? Well, what would that entail on my part? The first thing that it means is that I should pray about it. If I try to face the sin on my own, I'm gonna either run away, or I'm going to end up sinning myself. Secondly, we have to make sure we hate the sin, not the sinner. Jesus taught us to love everyone at all times.

Take a look at Matthew 21:12 - Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. We've been studying this chapter for the past two weeks at church and I've discovered a lot of neat things in it. Does anything strike you about this passage? It says that Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers. So what? Well, presumably that would scatter their money everywhere, right? True, but it would mean they could gather it back up and probably not lose a whole lot. Now, this is where it gets cool. The last part of the verse says that Jesus overturned the seats of those who sold doves. Why wouldn't He overturn their tables too? What would happen if He overturned a table with a cage of doves on it? The cage could burst open and all the doves would be lost. However, by overturning their seats, He's not doing any damage to their merchandise. Jesus may severly dislike what they're doing, but He lovingly throws them out of the temple. Neat. ;)

So, what's the application? Like I said above, hate the sin, not the sinner. Jesus taught us to stop the sin, but not do damage to the sinner in doing so. While ya'll are thinking about all this, I'll be praying through confronting those whom I care about that sin in way that I would normally run from.

Sometimes I think it's selfish to feel this way; to see what they're doing as sin, when they don't. I don't know, I haven't figured that one out yet. I tend to believe, though, that sin is sin, whether seen by the sinner or not. Sometimes we have to have stuff pointed out to us before we know there is a problem. Maybe that's what they're waiting for....

I have a friend who historically has bad Mondays. Well, God put it on my heart to change that. I'll report back as to how it works out. If you get a chance, keep her in your prayers. Thanks. :)