TFTD: “For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.” -1 Corinthians 4:15

About 4 months off and some great changes to my life I am happy to be posting again this morning from MY desk! I am now a full time Director of Christian Education (DCE) and am very excited to be starting ministry in the Twin Cities. So hopefully I will be more frequent about my posting moving forward. Anyway… enough about me. Let’s get to some Jesus!

I don’t know if you were like me and spent last night at home watching The Voice, Scorpion, and Castle under a blanket because it has been abnormally cold for this time of year, or if you were out and about running errands and trying to keep up with the tasks of everyday life, but I’m sure that at some point you heard the news that a verdict came in Ferguson Missouri about the altercation between a police officer and a young man which resulted in the young man’s death. The verdict stated that the police officer was found not guilty on 5 different counts of intentional or unintentional murder. This story has been tough to deal with for many people and kind of hits home for me because I have many friends from the greater St. Louis area, some of which have been trying to help the people of that area deal with and understand the anger and the frustrations of everything that has happened. As a result of the verdict last night, and even before then, there have been a lot of protests, most of which have been peaceful but some that have caused a lot of damage.

So why do I bring this up and make another post about something that we have already been inundated with since early August? Well, it’s because we can all relate to this story. It seems that those who are the most upset about this event feel that way because they think someone has been wronged and that there were no consequences for what happened. I understand that the last statement is a generalization but hang with me please. When it comes down to it, isn’t that why we all get angry? No matter the situation we feel that we or someone we know has been wronged and that appropriate actions have not been taken to right that wrong. Now there is a big difference between what has happened in Ferguson and our general anger. Please know that I understand that difference, but what if God dealt with us the same way we deal with our anger and feelings of injustice and frustration? Life would be a little bit different wouldn’t it?

If God got angry with us for all of the times that we sin and make mistakes, and gave us our just punishment for those actions there would be no human race. We are a people who, because of what happened in the Garden of Eden, are sinful and screw up on a regular basis. We do our best to do things right and in the proper manors but it doesn’t always work. Sometimes our actions, well intended or not, end up causing pain to those who are around us. But that’s where God comes in. He didn’t deal with us according to our actions or intentions. He dealt with us in a loving and kind manor. He had every right to be angry with us and destroy the world and everyone in it. But He didn’t. He had mercy on us. He saw that we are people whose actions and intentions often fail us and then decided to send His only son to the cross to pay for those things that we did so that we could live with Him forever. He didn’t do that because He was angry with us. He did it because He loves us.

So when it comes to tough situations that we see happening around the world and in our own lives let’s remember that the grace and forgiveness that we have been given. Let’s let our anger cause riots and uproars, but let those uproars and riots be of grace and forgiveness and see how it changes our lives and attitudes.

Question for the day: In what situations can you overcome your anger with grace and forgiveness today?

“Do the best you can with what you have, and God will take what you’ve done and pass it on.”

-Zig Ziglar