Love. Serve. Shine.

A quick little snippet on all the Chick-Fil-A goings on. The good thing about a blog is that people who don’t want to read it don’t have to. Not so much with Facebook. Well, today (August 1) was “Support Chick-Fil-A Day” which some I believe interpreted as, “flaunt your righteousness day.” It broke my heart. While I absolutely believe homosexuality to be an abomination in the eyes of the Lord, and therefore, a very serious sin, I would never desire in any way to make homosexuals feel hated or unloved. And I’m sure my brothers and sisters would agree with me. I however also applaud a company willing to stand up for its values. But how did the affirmation of such strength lead to such a hate-shower? This is where my heart got saddened. Wow. I speak as a follower of Christ when I say the following: yes, we absolutely must stand up when our freedoms are being threatened. But that is not what is happening here. Forgive me, I do not know why or how the Cathy family came about saying that he does not support gay marriage, but that is okay for him to say. He should not be labeled a “gay hater.” The two logically do not go hand in hand. It’s like a man saying “I don’t give money to beggars on the side of the street” and another person taking that and saying, “He hates all beggars on the side of the street!” There is no clear line that connects the two.

I do not think it was a coincidence that I read I Corinthians 5 today. And I read these words: “I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.” (vs. 9-12) We don’t go eat at Chick-Fil-A all day to show contempt for the gays in our community. That thought should not cross a Christian’s mind. I think I can safely say that bringing any sort of grief or pain to ANY person, be he straight or gay, is not anything any one of us would ever want to do. So, we must think of this. We must, friends, we must. I know that getting caught up in an emotional frenzy over what a monster our president is, and how our country is going to pot, is easy at times. But we must examine our hearts. Our actions will be forever ingrained in the people who see them. Are we showing true love to them? Do we love them without envy, boasting, or pride? Do we love them without being rude, self-seeking, easily-angered, and keeping no tallies of their hateful posts on FB, their hateful looks, etc? “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” Friends, we are called to bring Jesus’ love into a dark and suspicious world that desperately needs it. When you’re in heaven are you going to look back at August 1, 2012 and say “Sure am glad I ate chicken and showed those gays the freedom of speech!” or are you going to see the countless lost souls that closed the doors of their hearts to people like us? This may or may not happen. Perhaps you just love Chick Fil A and wanted to show them that you will still eat their food. (I will and do). Maybe you are a constant blessing to everyone you meet, no matter their opinions. But I was convicted and challenged to examine my heart. Examine my motives. I found pride and the desire to be “righteous” in my heart when I thought of going to CFA today. It was not a righteous desire. It was a mean, spontaneous, self-righteous, arrogant stance against I don’t even know what. Please, friends, examine your hearts. Do you think a gay person you chat with or who comes into contact with you would learn more about your Savior from your anti-gay-marriage rant or a genuine and loving interest in them? Think about it. I need to, too. I have found ugliness inside that I must deal with. 

To get back to the Bible passage: judging others is not our job; except in reference to keeping the church healthy and holy to God. That is the only case where we are to judge our brother, if his actions will cause disharmony and if he has gone against his commitment to upholding the righteousness of the Body. If he is unwilling to repent, then he should be cast out before he causes another member to stumble. “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” A little cancer can still kill the whole body. Do not let that cancer grow. Cut it out. Cut out either the sin by leading the brother to repentance or cut out the sin by removing the unrepentant brother from the church’s midst. But we are talking about the other half of the passage, the one about “I’m not talking about all the people of the world… God will judge them.” If we judged them, how would they ever get to taste and see that the Lord is good? That He is real and can change a heart and a life. And that His love is overwhelmingly real and abundant. Wow, what if we just shared THAT with people? Those two simple sentences. Who wouldn’t want to hear more??? “Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven.” It’s not up to us to judge and criticize and hate. Unbelievers and followers of the world do enough of that. It’s not our job to convert people, either. It is our job to LOVE and SERVE and SHINE. Plant the seeds in the hearts of people, live it. Live it so that you’re credible when you speak to them about God’s love and His life-changing grace that is free for the taking. Then let God do the work. God changes hearts. We just bear the image of what a changed heart looks like. Remember that, friends. Strive for that. That is lasting and will bring  much praise to the name of Jesus.