Finding the Good

I have been challenged.

Challenged to do what, you may ask?

Well, it is simple: love.

I am a sinner. Everything about me is messy and imperfect. I have horribly poor time-management skills. I am unable to fall asleep before 10 P.M. every night. I always, always, always procrastinate. I find that I am not skilled at but a few things I try. I say stupid things that I regret the moment they come out of my mouth.

I admit all these things to say that I make mistakes on a regular basis (as we all do), and there are plenty of times that I look back and think, What was I thinking?!?

Loving people is hard–especially loving messy and imperfect people. And isn’t that ironic, because as hard as it is to love those flawed individuals, it is even harder to take a good, long look in the mirror and admit that we are, indeed, those very same flawed individuals we are called to love.

I have a difficult time controlling my tongue; in fact, if I had to pick a part of me I would rather keep under lock-and-key, it would be this little tongue of mine.

So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.

James 3:5-6

Dang. That little flab of whatever the tongue is made out of sure can cause a world of trouble for not only the speaker, but the listeners as well. And, did y’all catch that part in verse 6 that says, The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body…? STAINING THE WHOLE BODY?! WHHHATT? No. It can’t be possible that our words, the mere things we say, could stain our personalities, our reputations. Words are so easily thrown around, they can be seen as insignificant.

Oh, I didn’t mean it!

I’m just kidding!

Don’t be such a baby!

Sound familiar? I know they do for me. I sometimes find myself loosing the reins I have on my tongue and saying some pretty unkind things about people that I should definitely leave to myself. And it’s so easy to come to that point.

But, as I said previously, I have been challenged to love. In everything i do and say, I will try my hardest to speak life (and that is way easier said than done!). Love my fellow sinners and coheirs with Christ. Find the good, not the bad, in the person.

“God, give us eyes to see people as you see them. Amen.”

– Vivian Mabuni