When Christians Attack

I was watching a show the other day on Animal Planet about animals who attack. Primarily animals attack for one of three reasons: food, to protect their young, or because they feel threatened. As I got to thinking about that, and as I thought about some things that have happened to me lately, I came to the conclusion that people are not much different from animals and Christians not too different from other people.

As for food, have you noticed how people act in line at the local buffet? It is a WAR ZONE. And as for protecting their young, go to a little league game sometime and watch the parents. But those are blogs for other days. I want to focus a little on that third reason – feeling threatened.

There are several reasons animals feel threatened. For one, they may be injured and feel particularly vulnerable. Or they may feel as though their “space” is being violated. Often the threat comes when an animal thinks another animal in the “family” is trying to take his place in the pecking order. These confrontations can be violent and more often than not several animals are injured – some even mortally – in the process.

I remember a long time ago hearing a preacher make a statement that has stuck with me: “hurt people hurt people.” Isn’t that true? People who lash out at others usually have some sort of pain of their own. Maybe they aren’t happy with themselves, so they try to make themselves feel better by hurting someone else. Maybe they feel threatened by someone so they try to discredit that person or wound their spirit to the point that they will give up and go away. Maybe there are some issues within the person that need to be addressed so the person can feel better about themselves and no longer feel the need to hurt others.

I share this with you for two reasons. First, if you are one of those people who is always angry, frustrated, feeling hurt, bitter-tongued, let me encourage you to examine your heart. Are their issues you need to address? Are their people who have hurt you in the past whom you have failed to forgive? Be careful about harboring bitterness. It is most dangerous to you, but it will spill over and hurt those around you as well. Bitterness is HIGHLY contagious and EXTREMELY volatile and poisonous. Hebrews 12:15 says, “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”

But second, if you are the victim of someone else’s bitterness, let me encourage you to forgive and not get caught up in their bitterness. It is too easy to respond in kind when we are attacked. I know, I’ve been there, done that, and have the scars to prove it. But we must remember that the real issue is of a spiritual nature – the person coming at us with bitterness has some spiritual issues. A person not at peace with others is not at peace with themselves and ultimately not at peace with God. Unforgiveness is a sin, plain and simple. If we neglect to forgive, we have become just like the one attacking us.

Rather than fighting fire with fire, let’s fight the fire with the extinguisher of grace and forgiveness. Let’s learn to erase the ledger often and forgive others. And let’s start a new cycle of peace.

Make every effort to live at peace with all men, and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. – Hebrews 12:14

Summertime and the Living Is Cheesy

Everyone who knows me knows I LOVE summer, and for a variety of reasons – longer daylight hours, baseball, water sports, and the delicious assortment of summer fruits and vegetables.  I especially love watermelon.  Nothing cools me down in the summer faster than a bowl full of cold watermelon cubes.  You should even try them frozen.  Just cut the watermelon in 1 inch cubes, place them on a cookie sheet, and set them in the freezer for just a few minutes.  The water in them crystallizes and the result is an even sweeter and colder treat.

The other day when I was at the grocery store, I decided to buy a watermelon.  And of course as is all the rage now, I bought one stamped “seedless.”  Did you know I have never seen an actual seedless watermelon?  They all have those little thin, flat, yellow seeds in them. – but they are seeds nonetheless.  So I didn’t really expect the watermelon to be seedless, they never are.  But this label caught my attention.  Sure it said seedless and had the bar code, but then in small print beneath the barcode were the words “may contain some seeds.”

Honestly, I didn’t know how to react.  Initially I bristled at the blatant contradiction.  How can something be both A and B when A and B are incompatible?  Then my second reaction was mor positive: “how refreshing that finally there was some truth in advertising here.”  But what surprised me most was the reaction that followed after taking the watermelon home and eating it (by the way, it wasn’t that good – not ripe enough).

As I thought about that sticker, I thought about labels we wear and wonder how accurate they are.  The most important label I wear is “Christian.”  I guess if I were going to be as honest as the watermelon salesman, I would have to put a disclaimer in small print on my label that says “may contain some unchristian attitudes and actions.”  You see, I do not always live up to the advertising either.  

Why is it that I find it a bigger deal for a watermelon label to be false advertising, but I allow – even rationalize – unchristian characteristics to creep into my life?  So, the watermelon taught me a lesson.  Although I will never be perfect, by God’s grace, I need to let Jesus permeate more of my life, more of my thinking, more of my attitude – in fact I need to let Him have it all.  One of my favorite verses all of my life has been Galatians 2:20:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God. who loved me and gave Himself for me.

So once again, I come to the throne of grace, recognizing my failure to live appropriately when focus on myself and I ask Jesus to live in me, help me keep my mind thinking about Him, keep my attitude humble and yielded to him, recognizing all the while that HE and HE ALONE is the center, head, and even sum total of my life.  I live by Him, through Him, and for Him.  

I love you Jesus.  By your grace, help the label on the outside to match the reality on the inside.

Attitudes

Have you ever driven a vehicle that needed alignment? You have to work to keep it moving in the intended direction. The vehicle shakes and shimmies, and ultimately the bad alignment damages the tires and makes the ride unsafe.

God set up this life to be lived a certain way. When we live any other way than what He prescribes in His word, the ride gets bumpy, shaky, and ultimately unsafe. One of the most basic frameworks for the kind of attitude with which we should approach life is found in Matthew 5 and is called the Beatitudes – or as I like to spell it the Be-Attitudes.

In his book Your God Is Too Small, JB Phillips has a chapter titled "Life's Basic Principles" with a subtitled section What sort of people does God intend man to be? Read his comparison to Jesus’ Be-Attitudes and our culture’s attitudes.

Most people think:

• Happy are the pushers for they get on in the world.
• Happy are the hard-boiled; for they never let life hurt them.
• Happy are they who complain; the get their own way in the end.
• Happy are the blasé; they never worry over their sins.
• Happy are the slave-drivers; they get results.
• Happy are the knowledgeable men of the world; they know their way around.
• Happy are the trouble-makers; people have to take notice of them.

Jesus Christ said:

• Happy are those who realize their own spiritual poverty; they have already entered the kingdom of reality.
• Happy are they who bear their share of the world's pain; in the long run they will know more happiness than those who avoid it.
• Happy are those who accept life and their own limitations; they will find more in life than anybody.
• Happy are those who long to be truly "good"; they will fully realize their ambition.
• Happy are those who are ready to make allowances and to forgive; they will know the love of God.
• Happy are those who are real in their thoughts and feelings; in the end they will the ultimate reality, God.
• Happy are those who help others to live together; they will be known to be doing God's work.

So, which attitude drives you in your daily living? Which one comes closer to describing your worldview? Are you driving through life in need of an Attitude Alignment?

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Written By J.B. Phillips "Your God is Too Small", The MacMillan Company, New York 2nd printing 1953. p. 101, 102