How great is your name O Lord our God through all the earth
Your majesty is praised above the heavens
on the lips of children and babes
You have found praise to foil your enemy
to silence the foe and the rebel
When I see the heavens the work of your hands
the moon and the stars which you arranged
What is man that you should keep him in mind
mortal man that you care for him
Yet you have made him little less than a god
with glory and honor you crowned him
Gave him power over the works of your hand
put all things under his feet
All of them sheep and cattle
yes even the savage beasts
Birds of the air and fish
that make their way through the waters
How great is your name O Lord our God through all the earth
Have you ever sat in a church service, or perhaps listened to a sermon on the radio, or perhaps watched a preacher of a megachurch on television or the internet, or perhaps read a book and encountered a theology that focuses on the perfection of God and the complete and utter imperfection of people? You know, the kind of sermon where you walk out feeling like the scum of the earth, the kind of sermon where you think, ‘Yep, I do deserve to burn in hell forever’? If you haven’t you should count yourself lucky, but my guess would be that you are more like myself and have sat through quite a few sermons about how completely awful we humans are.
I cannot say that there aren’t passages in the Bible that relay such information, but at the same time there are passages like Psalm 8 where David sends up worship to God, at least in part because of how good and powerful we are. In addition, sitting on this side of the cross and resurrection, I know about the great love that God has for us. It is a love that is so large that it sent Jesus down to this big ball of water and rock in an attempt to open our eyes to that love.
We are not perfect, far from it, turn on the news and you learn that pretty quickly. We are capable of great evil, but we are also capable of great good. There are Hitlers and Pol Pots and Mansons among us, but we are also the people that Jesus said would do greater things than he would do, and only by tapping into the goodness within us and the grace that we are shown can we do that. So don’t focus on the evil, on the sin, on the mistakes, focus on the goodness, the love, the grace and the kindness, both within you and around you.
+ How did you feel while sitting through sermons on how evil humans are? How do you feel about those sermons now?
+ How can you better focus on the good that humanity is capable of as opposed to the evil that we are?
+ Can you accept the great love that God has for you, and for the rest of humanity as well, both the good and the evil? How can you begin to show that same love to the people around you?
I am going to quote you on Facebook. -elisa
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