Never really thought about Jesus' words being 'cold' until I met a man in Guatemala once he used that very adjective. I can almost hear his words echoing in my brain this morning, "I don't know if I can handle things that Jesus' said. He said some cold things. " My new friend went onto share some of the sayings of Jesus and explain his point. I ain't gonna lie, I agreed with him then and I agree with him now, but I would add the adjective 'hard' or maybe 'tough'.
Sometimes I read the Bible and admit, "How on earth am I supposed to live that out? That's too hard, too tough, or as my buddy would say, 'cold'. If we are all honest we might say the same thing when we read a specific passage and it just hits us right in the face,"Man, this is too hard. I don't know how to do that, or even what it looks like." Maybe we don't even want to try and follow obediently in what we've read from Jesus because it's just doesn't make sense. It's just plain crazy.
Like today, I came across Luke 6 and a ton of 'cold' sayings of Jesus. For instance, "Do not judge and you will not be judged," right. I flunk this one more than I pass it. And there's, "Forgive, and you will be forgiven," okay, I like the part about being forgiven, but man, oh man, when someone does me wrong it just stinks. I get hurt, I feel angry, I lose a few points on the happy scale. I want revenge. Yes, I do. I want to forgive, but this little beast inside me says take revenge, strike back swiftly.
And that part about not condemning others, well, I've been a Christian so long I know all the things I'm not supposed to do, all the 'don'ts' and 'not do's', so, it makes it easy to find everyone else's faults. In fact, it's easier to find my wif'e's faults than mine, less painful, you understand. Better that way. Less guilt in my heart. Cold words, hard words, tough words.
The easy thing to do would be to keep the Bible shut, closed, and collecting dust in my house. Maybe I could sell it or be really spiritual and give it away. That's the easy thing to do, but it's not the thing I choose to do. I always have liked doing things the hard way. Wish it wasn't so.
Just found some more 'cold' words, "Give to everyone who asks of you...." Man, I just should close this book before I get into more trouble, because I live in a big city and there is tons of poverty and I see people begging for money all the time. How do you, "give to everyone who asks of you,"?
Cold, hard, tough, life-giving words.
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