Feeling immensely frustrated yesterday, I wrote the mother of all rants, liberally peppered with biblical texts to back my argument, expressing my general exasperation and indignation about the way Some People Behave.
My principal point was that nobody should ask others to bear burdens they are unwilling to bear themselves, nobody should judge the behavior of others. If you don’t like what other people are doing, don’t do it yourself then. If you think the Bible should be applied scrupulously, apply it in your own life – and while you’re at it, remember that the Bible says do not judge, be gentle and tolerant and forbearing, be gracious and kind, don’t point the finger at other people. All you have to do is stop criticizing what others are doing and get on with it in your own life.
Happily, before I posted this, I read it through, thought 'Oh, right, I see,' and therefore deleted it.
The Lord laughed a lot, said ‘Gotcha!’ and here we are today, the page unscorched by my generalized outrage of yesterday.
But I am thinking about it. ‘Tis grist to my mill, see. And what it did is remind me that God has very excitingly given me an area of responsibility, a garden to weed, a Kingdom outreach post to mind, a Kingdom business to run – my own life.
What I am here for is to build the Peaceable Kingdom. Time and again I come back to this poem by Edna St Vincent Millay, which I totally love.
Today I am thinking especially of these two lines:
“I will not tell him the whereabout of my friends
nor of my enemies either.”
It’s a reminder to me that the Peaceable Kingdom is not a citadel being built for me and the people I like, for me and the people who agree with me. Shockingly, it’s not even my personal Kingdom. It does actually belong to the King; it’s His idea, His project, and we play it by His rules.
And He says, ‘All people.’ He says, ‘I love all people – even the ones who are so stratospherically objectionable to you, honey. Love ’em all – no, I mean it; even them. Here’s a trowel, sweetheart, come on, let’s get to it. Let’s keep building. And let’s start the day with a song.’
I love the Lord! I love the Peaceable Kingdom – and I tell you what; you pay no attention to what anybody says, whoever you are there is room for you. No, really, there is.
Oh and PS. In yesterday's mail I also got the nightie I have been waiting for from King's Daughters and O my darlings I tell you - these are the nighties they will be wearing in Heaven! Maybe even the men! So though I have an uneasy suspicion Plain Christians might not normally be posting photographs of themselves in their night attire on the internet, I uploaded a piccy to show you. I mean, after all, it is completely modest!
'Where will it end?' they ask themselves, shaking their heads sadly...