April 11, 2016

Sin Reveals Itself

David burned with anger against the man. “I solemnly swear, as the Lord lives,” he said to Nathan, “the man who did this certainly deserves to die! 6 And he must pay back four times the price of the lamb because he did this and had no pity.”

7 “You are the man!” Nathan told David. -- 2 Samuel 12:5-7a

The prophet Nathan was wise. He didn’t confront King David directly. Instead he told a story about a poor man and his little lamb. It was heart wrenching how the rich man stole the poor man’s little lamb.

David was furious and vowed to punish the man -- until Nathan told David he was the man. David had stolen another man’s wife. He had sinned against the Lord.

It’s funny how clearly we can see the sin in another’s life and how blind we are to the same sin in our own lives. There’s a belief that the sins we see so clearly in others are the very sins we are trying to deny in our own lives. There’s a lot of truth in that.

Don’t you just hate it when others try to fix you? We’ve probably all been on the receiving end of that. It doesn’t feel good, does it?

To be fair, we’ve also all probably tried to fix someone else at some point as well. It didn’t work, did it? We can’t fix anyone, anymore than they can fix us. If we even need fixing.

That’s the thing about outside judgments. We really don’t have a clue. We don’t. We tell others what they should do. We confront them “for their own good,” we tell ourselves. If they would just change, everything would be find. We know it would. We get angry when they won’t comply.

Here’s the thing: Nobody owes you an explanation. They don’t. Just like you don’t owe anyone else an explanation for how you behave. None of us are perfect. And nobody has the right to tell someone else to “get over” something or to “admit” what they’ve done is wrong.

If you’re having that conversation with someone, look in the mirror. The person you need to be preaching to is yourself. If someone is having that conversation with you, realize that it isn’t about you. It’s about them and their issues.

Again, no one is perfect. If I’m confronted, I take it to God and ask Him to search me. If there’s truth in it, I ask for forgiveness and direction. If there’s no truth, I let it go.

Don’t let someone else push their issues and their opinions on you. Just don’t. Walk away. They aren’t going to hear anything you say anyway. God will take care of it. Every time.