It's Not Always, Always

When driving, why does it take some people so long to turn right? It's almost as if they picture themselves in the Olympics, "here we go, the approach is good, now oh, oh, oh, yessss, stuck it." Shut up and turn already, your blinker's going to burn out.

The fact that lost love hurts as much as it does proves to me its worth living for. If it is that noticeable when it's gone, then honestly, what is it?

Trevor and I were talking the other day, you know discussing how to change the world from the kitchen counter-top, and he said something that has been bouncing around in my head for a while. He said in one way or another that the older we get the less we buy into absolutes. Absolutes are things that we label as "always", or "all the time." I totally agree. There really are very, very few absolutes in this life. People aren't always like this, things don't always turn out like that.

But there really is beauty in this. It seems to me that life pushes us towards a relational way of living. Things don't fit into formulas. People don't fit into equations. God doesn't exist inside of a method. It is though how we seem to approach these things. If I treat this person this way, say these certain things, follow these steps, then this will happen. I haven't found this to be true very often. God is the same way. I find myself thinking, if I read this much scripture, say these prayers, have this attitude, this behavior then God will respond the way I want Him to. Is He God, or is He a video game? When I think this way I'm not relating to a living God, I'm relating to a method, a equation, a formula, and not a divine being.

What God wants is for us to know Him. To ask Him, "Why did you do that?" Things aren't always so black and white, but that's ok, we tend to enjoy the colors anyway.

I think something incredible happens when we approach people this way as well. We very good at trying to wrap somebody up in a single moment based on first impressions or stereotypes. We see them behaving a certain way and we sum them up instantly. An entire life defined in a moment.

Jesus didn't do this. I heard a really good sermon last night on Luke chapter 7 by my friend Dustin Willis. It's the story of the woman, a prostitute, that washed Jesus' feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, and covered them with expensive perfume. I was thinking about how differently the religious guys looked at her compared to how Jesus looked at her. The religious guys saw her as a prostitute, a horrible person living a horrible life, they summed her up in an instant. Jesus didn't do that. He looked at her in love, with compassion. Jesus looked at her and not only saw her in her current condition, but also her whole life, everything that brought her to that moment. He knew, because He is God, that this woman's dream from the time she was a child wasn't to grow up and become a prostitute, but that a lot of things happened to get her there. Jesus' compassion on this woman not only forgave her of her sins, but it set her free from a life controlled by them. She knew after that moment that Jesus understood, but also that she didn't have to live that way anymore.

Life is relational. With God and with each other. It can be painful, but even then it still shows itself to be beautiful.