I was reminded this morning; “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”* And; “a world that is marked by hatred, violence, injustice, racism, betrayal, disloyalty, selfishness, abuse and many other forms of relational sin and brokenness…”** Christ understands. And all this reminded me of something I was taught years ago about grieving over my own sins, “don’t crucify yourself over it, Lee, Christ already did that.”*** It has become culturally sophisticated to see how much we can publicly crucify ourselves over our sins as a means of cleansing ourselves of our own unrighteousness. It is a false and pride-filled engagement. We are all sinners absolutely unable to help ourselves. It is only through Christ that we can be cleansed. And a sure sign of His cleansing being applied to our life is not a public crucifixion of ourselves over our sins; it is loving forgiveness of others as we have been forgiven; evidenced by our public caring by loving all those others.
*Isaiah 53
**New Morning Mercies by David Tripp
*** my mom, Mary Nell Benson
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| So much wisdom passed to me and mine through this woman, my mom. |
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