Scrubbing a television set to get it clean, I see firsthand the sticky, nicotine-stained residue of cigarette smoke. It is dark brown against the whiteness of the paper towel in my hand and doesn't release its grip easily. I picture the accumulation of years of smoking on a set of lungs, how it would turn them from healthy pink to brown, tarry-coated, inefficient machines that no longer function at capacity. But this vision I can only imagine as the lungs are hidden from view.
Like cigarette residue, the impact of judging or despising each other is not always seen. The results of hatred also remain hidden on my pock-marked soul, compromising the efficiency with which I function in a day. Oh, I try to pretty up the language to justify my actions, but the fact remains that everyday I am either choosing to function in hatred or in love, in judgment or in mercy, in unkindness or in grace. Either I indulge selfish desires, pick up the cigarette/judgment and smoke it/indulge it, or I don't. Strong language, hatred and love, judgment and mercy, but strong impact of daily habits, nevertheless, that leave their sticky, repulsive residue on the soul.
Every day presents equal opportunities for me to exercise hatred or love, judgment or mercy, unkindness or grace, faith or doubt, His way or my way. Like inhaling cigarette smoke launches a blackened deposit and diminishes the lungs, each time I indulge my ego and pass judgment in thought or word against another person, a compromising deposit is made on my soul. I have chosen the impure over the pure.
But, and this is a big but, the good news, the big news, is that the hidden stains of my indulgences have been removed. God swiped my soul with the cloth of Jesus's sacrifice and forever removed the repugnant stains of my selfishness with His selflessness. The sacrifice of His death cost Him more than I will ever know, more than the elbow grease required to clean the nicotine stains from a television set. The release of my soul from the stain of my sins came at great personal cost to God. That personal cost is the measure, the standard, of His love for us all. He forgives. He loves, more completely than I can even begin to imagine.
My love is often conditional. His love is always without condition. That is who He is, Perfect Love. He sacrificed for us while we were still sinning. You wouldn't want to depend on me for that kind of perfect love. But you can depend on Him.
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Nice meeting you via our blogs.
ReplyDeleteWhile Christ wipes away our stain, something we should be greatful for, our judgment of others may not come without a cost. While it is true we are forgiven, our rewards in heaven may be connected to our performance.
Judge not that you may not be judged, forgive us as we forgive others.
Not to mention when we respond to others in a unloving way we can further the distance between them an Christ.
Our actions matter even though we live in grace. The "repulsive residue on the soul" that is wiped clean is great for us but the second had residue on the soul of others is not something we should take lightly.
Of course it is "easy" to keep others free of our smoke. Love them.
I like your blog thoughts, thanks for sharing.