These past few weeks – oh, who am I kidding – months, I’ve been overwhelmed by personal issues. My devotional time has suffered, and I’ve even been disinterested in politics.  It’s past time to snap out of this funk I’m in, so I’m starting a new bible study plan.  Of course, I’m still disorganized and lazy by nature, so this Bible Reading Plan for Shirkers and Slackers will do nicely. (I reformatted the .pdf to print on two 8.5 x 11 pages.) If you’re feeling a bit more ambitious, check out Justin Taylor’s comprehensive post on bible reading plans.

This is kind of an “everything but the kitchen sink” post of some things that have deeply impressed me recently.  I don’t think too highly of myself even on a good day, but compared to these folks… wow.

I watched a Discovery Channel documentary on Netflix – Two Weeks In Hell.  The young men who went through the two-week selection process for Green Beret training are truly amazing.  The fact that they go through this hellish process voluntarily – to challenge themselves and to serve their country – shows a strength of character that I don’t think I will ever have. And if they make it through the incredibly painful, stressful two week tryout, their reward is… a chance to continue more incredibly painful, stressful Green Beret training for a year. And then they still might not make the cut.  If I ever am introduced to a Green Beret, I will tell him it’s an honor to meet him, and I will mean it sincerely.

Just when we’re all heartily tired of our nation’s youth whining about how college isn’t free and in spite of their Womyn’s Study degree they can’t find a job - and stay off my lawn, you whippersnappers! – here’s a reminder that they are not all lazy, whining, MTV addicts.  Angela Zhang is a 17 year old high school senior whose science fair project just happened to be an innovative treatment for cancer.  Good Lord, do I feel insignificant. And proud.

And today I was reminded of the most amazing thing of all – God loves the unlovely (like me, for example) and is committed to winning and transforming them. Humbling doesn’t begin to cover that.

‘What you’re doing is wrong, guys. Do you know what is right or wrong?’

Qaddafi was apparently referring to violations of Islamic law in how his captors treated him. Still, that’s one scalding-hot cup of irony he served up there at the end, isn’t it? Don’t click through unless you want to see some really graphic images.

It’s sobering to consider the sense of entitlement in how we view ourselves compared to how others see us – and more importantly, how God sees us. After administering a brutal dictatorship for four decades, Qaddafi had the audacity to complain about the treatment he received from others.  Now he’s answering to God, who says there is no one who is righteous, not even one. (Romans 3:10, also Ecclesiastes 7:20) Which puts us on a more or less equal footing with a brutal dictator: God is not going to compare our sins to Qaddafi’s and say, “Hey, you weren’t so bad after all – come on in!*

Salvation aside, obviously Qaddafi had one set of standards for himself and a different set of  ”fair play” expectations for others.  But his question, “Do you know what is right or wrong?” got me thinking about the standards I use to assess what is right and wrong. And even though I know better, I often judge myself according to other people’s behavior: I’m never going to be as holy as so-and-so, but at least I’m not a rotten, malicious jerk like that guy.  And the truth is that I know what is right and wrong, and that mindset of looking to other sinners as a standard for self-assessment is entirely wrong.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
(Hebrews 12:1-4)

 

* Access to heaven is not according to a sliding scale; salvation is only through Jesus: [Read more...]