A bruised reed He will not break;
A smouldering wick He will not snuff out.
Do you wonder, sometimes, who you've injured on your journey through life and faith?
I do.
I wonder if there are people for whom my words might have been the last straw; whose smouldering wicks I snuffed out with my thoughtlessness.
The verse "he shall wipe every tear from their eye" has always seemed to me a very poignant indictment on humanity. Because sin is basically the inflicting of tears upon other people through our inability to be wholly holy - set and aligned with God and who we're meant to be.
We may not be bad people, but can we truly say that nobody has ever gone away and wept or grieved or screamed or ached at something we've said to them, something we've done? Because sin isn't just the slaughter of innocents or cheating on your partner, telling your children they're no good, or lying to the tax office...
Sin is also taking our ire from a bad day out on someone else who can't snap back at you.
It's not noticing that the woman who sits across the breakfast table from you is breaking her back to make your life as comfortable as she can and bearing what you can of her burdens.
It's turning your shoulder and hunching away from someone who loves you because you don't feel like responding in that moment.
It's denying someone else the respect or approval or appreciation they've earned, or even the respect and dignity that God views them with.
Why can we see a cluster of cells that have grown for a mere 22 days as more worthy of our time and attention than the bewhiskered, smelly, grim-eyed piece of humanity with the cardboard sign saying, "Lost my job, got turned out of my house, struggling"?
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No, I haven't kissed Christianity goodbye. God willing, I never will.
But I have Questions.
I don't think that's wrong - and it's relieving to know that other people of faith are saying "it's okay to have questions, to shrug and say 'I don't know', to wonder and worry and not be certain.
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