A Bigger View of God and His Grace

I was born with a tender conscience that kicked in quickly when I blew it. Having a tender conscience was good as the discomfort of guilt I experienced often motivated me to make God-honoring decisions in my life. It also stirred in me the desire to quickly confess sin. and to apologize to others I wronged. 

However, there was also a downside to having a tender conscience. It made me prey to a few manipulators, who realized they could just poke at my conscious and get what they wanted, even when it was detrimental for me and allowed them to continue down selfish, sinful paths. It also allowed abusers to silence me, when they implicated I was responsible for their actions. It took a few years of counseling to figure out what guilt was healthy and mine to confess and what guilt I needed to let others assume and deal with themselves. 

I experienced a lot of freedom from healthy guilt when I was saved. But before I knew it, guilt began to return. Sometimes it was normal, convicting guilt that led me to confess sin. Other times it was toxic guilt that spiraled me into a pit of dark shame. Looking back, I realize the tender conscience I was born with, didn't just make me easy prey to manipulative people and abusers, it had made me easy prey for the Enemy, who used lies to turn healthy, God-given guilt into toxic shame—a type of shame that was destructive and designed to keep me stuck and afraid to turn to God when I needed Him most. 

At first, I didn't even realize the Enemy was attacking me. Then God planted us, as a young couple, in a Bible-teaching church, where I grew leaps and bounds in my faith. We had many conversations there about God and Bible doctrines that included things like the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. The more I knew about God and His holiness, the more I wanted to become like Him. Yet, the growing understanding of God's Holiness was also changing my concept of sin. I no longer viewed it as just something I did. I also saw it as things like ungodly attitudes, selfishness, sinful thoughts, and inactions. For awhile, I kept it all in balance, confessing sin and growing in my relationship with God. 

Then I found a book that a spiritual inventory in it. I don't remember what book it was or even the questions on the inventory. But it was a long one and it included a list if sins a mile long, inappropriate attitudes, a list of generational sins one might have, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I mentioned the inventory to our pastor, who suggested I bring it by his office so he could see it. So, I took it to him and as he read it, I could feel my face growing hot, imagining him seeing into the ugly garbage of my soul that I believed was listed on that list. When he finished reading it, he set it down on his desk shaking his head from side to side and quietly said, "I hate this kind of stuff" He indicated that he understood how a list like that mixed with a tender conscience could leave me reeling in shame. He also explained that he believed our God was big enough to convict us and bring to mind sin He wants confessed. He also indicated He believed our God was not a God who buried His children in shame. 

Looking back on that time, I realize a lot of us go through this as we grow in our knowledge and understanding of God's holiness and our sinfulness. When we accept Christ, we understand God's grace in the moment and are thankful Jesus' blood covers the sin of which we were aware. But, as we grow in our understanding of God's holiness, the depth of our sinfulness becomes more apparent and it's easy to buy into the lies of the Enemy as he tries to convince us God's grace isn't big enough to meet us where we are really at, that Christ's death wasn't really sufficient to cover the depths of the sin we continue to uncover, or that God's love isn't deep enough to encompass the real messy us. Oh, we would say we believe God's grace is big enough, Christ death sufficient, and God's love all-encompassing, but if we are living shamed-filled lives, isn't there a disconnect between what we say we believe and what we are living? The truth is that Jesus' death was and is and will always be sufficient enough to cover sin--what we knew in the past, what we perceive in the present, and what we will uncover in the future. 

It is not God's desire for His people to live stuck in toxic, suffocating shame. But, it is His desire that we continue to grow in the understanding of His holiness. And, as our understanding of that increases our awareness of our sinfulness, He desires our view of grace and what Christ did on the cross to expand as well. When that happens, we become believers who live loved and who are filled with humility and gratefulness instead of shame. We want to remember there is not a sin so bad Christ's blood cannot cover it. Because He loves us, God convicts us. Because he hates us, the Enemy condemns us. All we have to do to silence the Enemy is adopt a bigger view of our God and His grace.  

When Life is not Viewed as Sacred

This last couple of weeks have been tough on everybody. First there was a mass shooting at a Garlic Festival in Gilroy and then a week later a mass shooting in a Walmart full of back-to-school shoppers in El Paso, leaving twenty-two dead many more injured. The events in El Paso left me feeling heavy-hearted and anxious. That same day one of our neighbors had a former boyfriend tinker with the wheels on her car and break out her windshield. That evening I had a hard time falling asleep and about the time I dozed off, sirens and flashing lights woke me up and there were emergency personnel near the neighbor's home. I gave up on sleep and picked up my iPad and there was news of another mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio and two mass shootings in Chicago that weren't give much press. As expected, talk turned political and people from all over the country began casting blame and people everywhere are on edge and loud sounds are triggering panic in this  heart and in the hearts of many others.

As I have prayed for the people who lost friends and family members, the Lord laid on my heart the story of Cain and Abel. After Cain slew Abel, God confronted Abel who tried to act like he didn't do anything to his brother. But God didn't let him off the hook. He said to Cain, "What have you done? The voice of your bother's blood is crying to me from the ground." I some found comfort in knowing my God knows and cares about each person who dies at the hand of another. Does that take away the pain of the losses incurred by so many people these last two weeks? No! People will grieve these losses for the rest of their lives. They will grieve every holiday, every missed milestone, every season of life, and every lost dream that died with their loved ones...and to be honest it just isn't fair and their hurt runs deeper than most of us will ever know. And, all of us are facing the loss of feeling safe in a country we love.

I understand the desire we have to cast blame. Because if we fix the blame on someone like the president then we could change presidents and maybe mass killings would end and we could feel safe again. But that is magical thinking. The truth is, these shootings began happening long before President Trump was in office.

If we blame the shootings on the political rhetoric, we may feel less powerless, but the truth is neither party is innocent of hyped-up rhetoric and neither party is willing to own their part in it. And a gaze back at history reveals that politics has always had a very ugly side to it that also predates these kinds of shootings.

If we fix the blame on the guns, then we may feel more powerful by trying to remove guns, believing mass shootings would then end. But the truth is, people have also carried out mass killings using machetes, knives, stones, and motor vehicles.

If we blame mental illness, we can try to keep mentally ill people from buying guns so shootings will not happen anymore. But the truth is, there are many who have struggled with depression, anxiety, and PTSD who have not and would not ever commit murder. And, isn't it true that if someone really wants a gun there are ways to get all sorts of guns illegally?

I have read a couple of interesting articles about the impact of early childhood trauma, which is something many of the shooters have had in common. But again, I and many other men and women I know have suffered early childhood trauma and we haven't done these things. And, how would we determine who has suffered from early childhood trauma that would lead to murder? As I processed the events, I realized the difference between the shooters and me and others who have also suffered early childhood trauma is that some of us have a reverence for the sanctity of life. I can't speak for everyone, but I know my reverence for life originated with my God. I believe each person was created in His image and believe He is the author of life. As such, God is the only one who has the right to decide when someone's life begins and when it ends. Even when I went through depression and had suicidal thoughts, this belief governed my decision to seek help instead of ending my life.

There are several things that I believe have played into a general lack of  respect for life, all of which are moral issues birthed our of rebellion towards God. First, it was the break down of the family unit, which happened when kids were handed off to childcare during their most formative years when their ability to form healthy attachments occurs. I realize as I write this, that some had no other choice and my heart goes out to them. But, but many did have choices and their choices lead to the destruction of their families and hindered their children's developmental processes.

"Easy divorce" has also contributed to the break down of the family unit. And, I know many who have been deserted by spouses who are picking up the pieces of a divorce they never wanted. This has left lonely, hurting children living in single parent homes, grieving a multitude of losses with which they don't have the capacity to deal. We can add to that the impact of drugs and alcohol, untreated mental illness, and pornography that is killing marriages and instilling in children perverted ideas. The objectification of men, women, and children through pornography is one of the things that kills the ability one has to have empathy for others. God's design of marriage, family units, and church families was intentional. It was designed to create in us the ability to form fulfilling attachments and to develop the ability to empathize with one another. Without empathy, there is nothing in us that tells us our actions are hurting others and that we need to grow.
 
Another thing that has contributed to the lack of respect for life is the plague of abortion. When people decided to call babies "pregnancy tissue," they dehumanized them in the minds of many. When women call abortion the "right to choose" rather than murder, they avoid the feelings that should come with having a baby ripped from their wombs. I do understand that the abortion business is built on lies and that many have been coerced into abortions they didn't want and my heart hurts for you. But many have chosen abortion for convivence sake.

I had five children and every time the doctor told me I was pregnant, I was filled with overwhelming joy. I also remember my babies in the womb, kicking, rolling over, stretching, and hiccupping. I remember how differently they each felt as their little personalities presented before they were even born. Oh, and the awe I felt at each birth and the joy I felt when each sweet newborn nestled close to my heart. My babies were not accidents, they were not inconveniences, they were not just tissue to be gotten rid of. They recognized our voices in the delivery room and looked for us when we spoke. I remember gazing into their tiny faces, looking for the family resemblance imprinted by our DNA and looking for their Heavenly Father's image woven into the fabric of their being. I don't say any of this with pride because of the choices I have made. Because to me there was never a choice to made. I believed with all that I was that God was the author of their lives and that His timing and His gift of them was perfect.

Abortion has wrongly been called a political issue, but it isn't. It is a moral issue that impacts how we view life. We either choose to nurture and protect life, starting in the womb, or we don't. And when we don't, we will suffer the consequences of living in a culture that has no reverence for the lives of people that God has created or His purpose in creating them to live the stories He has authored them to live.

I honestly can't remember a time when I wasn't aware of the permeance of death. That always made life seems fragile and in need of protection, especially when one of my kids dealt with things like asthma and a ruptured spleen and a newborn granddaughter was born three months early fighting gallantly for her life.

I also can't remember a time when I didn't view life as sacred and that it is the Creator who rightfully should reign over lives of people around me. When mankind refuses to bow their knees to the Creator and His sovereignty over life, we should not be surprised when mankind seeks to thwart God's rightful place by changing His laws and by taking lives. As believers, we are called to live aloud our faith and to remember in the midst of the hard, scary stuff happening that we are not wrestling with flesh and blood, but an Enemy whose ultimate goal is to dethrone the King of kings by casting doubt on His character and His goodness. But the end of the story--it was written in the blood of the Lamb and His Kingship proven by the Resurrection. Jesus won and He will reign forever. And in the mean time, I reject the lies of the Enemy and know that my heart is crying out, "Come Lord, Jesus!"