In the Lord I have taken my refuge
How can you say to my soul
Fly like a bird to its mountain
See the wicked bracing their bow
they are fixing their arrows on the string
To shoot upright men in the dark
Foundations once destroyed what can the just do
The Lord in his holy temple
the Lord whose throne is in heaven
His eyes look down on the world
his gaze tests mortal men
The Lord tests the just and the wicked
the lover of violence he hates
He sends fire and brimstone on the wicked
he sends a scorching wind as their lot
The Lord is just and loves justice
the upright shall see his face
One of my favorite movies during high school and college was The Program. It was a fictional account of what a NCAA football program, by imagery FSU, does in order to stay on top. In other words, the school overlooked massively bad behavior [including cheating, alcohol and steroid use, sexual assault] in order for players to keep playing. There was this one defensive player who had the line, “Kill ‘em all, let God sort them out.”
I remember as a kid my mom would sometimes use Santa Claus as leverage for me to act correctly, ala ‘if you don’t behave Santa is going to only bring you coal.’ And there was this general awareness that parents were in communication with Santa giving him updates on who exactly was naughty and nice.
As a pastor I am not the gatekeeper, I neither let people in nor do I keep them out. And in a way it could be argued that I have a similar stance as that football player but I decide to ‘Love ‘em all, let God sort them out.’ I have often thought it would be better to err on the side of grace and be told that I should have been stricter than to err on the side of judgment and be told that I should have shown more grace.
Jesus says that we will be judged by the same standard by which we judge, and so part of the reason I show grace is that perhaps grace will be shown to me. I do this because I know there have been times where I have shown less grace, times where I have judged others by a standard that I can’t, or rather don’t meet myself. Friendships have been damaged, people have been hurt, and I count myself among those people because when we judge others harshly we are the ones who very often are left out. On the flip side, when we give grace we are often shown grace and included. Inclusion is so much better than exclusion.
+ Have you intentionally or inadvertently acted as a gatekeeper to God? If yes, how can you keep from acting that way again?
+ How do you keep from judging by unfair standards? Do you?
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