Just listening to Ravi Zacharias tell a story about a person who didn't want to hear any more about the gospel because the priests and church in his country were murderous criminals. The man who was speaking to him said, if I were to take your coat and your hat, put them on, go into town and steal and then come back to your house and hang them up and hide. When the police see you wearing the hat and coat from far away and they come up and arrest you because they saw the coat and hat from the robbery, would that be ok with you? The man said of course not! Well, just because those priests have stolen the garments to make them appear as if they were part of Christ's kingdom . . .
My mind went back to the time right after we lost Emily. Emily and her friend died in that car wreck. There were several of us surrounding Beth and Willie. I remember Debbie Thogmartin and Anne, Beth's sister, among others. Well, several things happened that caused my temper to flare. Small things as I look back now, but I felt at the time, that they were hurting Beth who I was protecting. I started to say something once about how I felt about what that person was doing and I was quickly shushed by Debbie or maybe it was Anne. They had said it wasn't Christ-like what I was about to say. Oh, I wasn't going to cuss, but it was mean what they had done and saying it out loud would only add to the anger. They said it doesn't even need to find a voice and they were right. I don't think I'm explaining it very well but what I'm trying to say is that I am so glad my anger didn't come out. I'm so glad we took the high road. Not only was this honoring to God but honoring to Emily and to her parents. And we all grew from this. We grew closer to God.
I met several Christians surrounding Beth during that time. Several people who didn't just wear the hat and the coat - they ARE Christians (Christ-like).
They gave me an example of how to reign in my tongue and anger. They did it with kindness and with wisdom and with compassion. We were all hurting but they could see the bigger picture.
You see, I was a Christian then but I wasn't as far along in my walk with Christ, I wasn't very far along in my maturity. Ravi also talked about how he brought some people into Christ's family but they weren't very far into their walk. He chuckled. We all start off stumbling and fumbling and making fools of ourselves. Thank GOD, we have a kind Father who created us, loves us and understands us.
Imagine that? He created this world for us, created others for us, created us and is making a home for us once we make our metamorphosis into His home.
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