Moment of Reflection

This week I had a very real conversation with a classmate that has left me considering my behaviors. The timing of the conversation was perfect, because today at church our pastor, John Burke, asked the challenging question of "are we acting like Jesus or the Pharasees?" John shared the story where Jesus tells Simon a story of two men owing money to a moneylender. The first owed 500 denarii, and the second owed 50. Both debts were forgiven and Jesus asked which person will love the moneylender more. Simon stated that it was the one that had more debt to forgive. Here is the one of the only places where love has a qualitative property. Typically, we don't think of love having different levels at least when it comes from the mouth of Jesus.

I love that Jesus was pointing out that the greatest sinners could be the greatest lovers of God, especially considering the only person willing to wash Jesus' feet in this occasion was living "a sinful life" in other words "sexually immoral". This all goes back to the fact that I was out of line when making comments about Eminem in class. I stated that companies may not want to have a celebrity endorsement if the man beats his wife. This was not the character of Jesus, and therefore I want these thoughts removed from my life. I hope that my classmates will continue to hold me accountable for comments. Especially, if I think I am being funny.

Another area of my life that I wanted to bring up today is that I really feel blessed in a friendship that has recently been created. At the end of last year I met up with another volunteer at my church that wanted to start meeting weekly. For all he had told me, he was married, had a kid and in about the same point of life that I was in. On our first meeting, we laid our lives out on the table and both decided that God put us together in this accountability group for a reason. I did not judge this person, and he didn't judge me. I'm glad to call this person a good friend after just 4 months. Through this set of meetings, I have been able to see my friend work to remove his selfish desires and place God and his family in the proper order.

Watching my friend's transformation reminds me that people really can change, but more than that God loves us regardless of where we are. I just need to remember that Eminem deserves the chance to no longer live in his past, but more importantly, I didn't earn the love that is gracefully given to me, instead it is a gift.

For everyone reading this, please help to keep me accountable in not judging others and help remind me to love without discrimination. Thanks.