A Hurting World

Look around you. Do you see much hope on the horizon as you look at our world today? It seems we are growing expononentially in terms of technical knowledge but are we using this knowledge for good or for evil? When a woman can find out if her baby will have a defect so then she can get rid of it, is that "good"? Is advancing physics so we can build a better bomb "good"? Yes, we have so much more enlightenment than our ancestors, but where has it gotten us? Do you think this knowledge has made people happier?

I get so wrapped up in myself. Do you? You don't have to go very far to find someone that is down, in pain or hurting emotionally. Maybe just next door. All of have been bruised in our fleeting time on this planet where we breathe the numbers of breaths apportioned us by Almighty God. We are just a little bump on the horizon. Men have been born before us, and men will come after us.

You see someone acting out. My instant reaction is to think, "What a jerk." But wait. I don't know the path that led the person to that moment. The hidden hurts. The insults. The injustices.

Yes, we hurt each other. Sin against each other. But God knows deep down inside us the things that have made us the way we are. See how he knows us in Psalm 139. He knows like no one else could ever know. He knows even better than we could ever know ourselves.

So the next time I see a "jerk" am I going to be one right back to him? I hope not. I hope the mercy and grace of Christ will constrain me. Sometimes just a smile given to someone who is having a horrible day can help turn things around for them. Or what about the guy who cuts me off in traffic? If I am gracious, maybe I could help prevent an act of road rage, who knows?

All I know is, I have been given mercy, and I sure as heck don't deserve it. "Those people," the ones acting like jerks, have also been recipients of mercy, but they don't know it, they don't know the good news that Christ died for them. If I react as they do to me, they will continue in the blindness of ignorance. I am supposed to be Christ's representative in this dark world. Will I be one? That is up to me to decide.