Dear Christians,

For the last few months, something has been weighing heavily on my heart. However, over the last week or so, this “weight” has started to become unbearable. As a man who’s made it a mission to reflect Christ in all that I do, I see everyday the areas in life where I fail this mission… miserably.

One of the main problem areas for me has been around judgement and having an inherent need for there to be justice in the world. In other words, for the world to be fair- especially to me. I find myself treating others how they treat me, rather than treating others as I wish they would treat me. All the while hiding behind a veil of judgement, disguised as justice. In my life, I am my own arbiter of justice to all those I interact with, all the while praying for God to share His Grace with me. Jesus talks about this when discussing the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant (Matt.18:23-35). I am that unmerciful servant.

However, once this plank in my eye was revealed to me, I see nothing else. And, as such, I have began the work to remove this plank from my eye. Not to complain about the speck in your eye, but to be a better reflection who Jesus is.

With this in mind, as the divide between the “left” and “right” of this country grows wider every day, I see a lot of people struggling with similar issues. Some have had their eyes opened, while others remain blind. As Christians, I feel that we may need to be reminded that though we are to live in this world, we are not live for this world (Romans 12:2). We are not to be concerned with the works of the “one of this world”, but rather we are called to be Children of Light (John 12:36)- vessels, doing the work of the Father, the One beyond this world.

Our current political system is designed to divide, but Jesus calls us to be united in love (John 17:20-26). The world tells us to love ourselves and to tolerate others. Jesus tells us to love the world as if they were ourselves (Matt. 22:37-40). The world tells us we need to protect ourselves with weapons, Jesus tells us to not be concerned with this life, but cherish our place in the life to come (Matt. 6:25-34). The bible tells us that those who know Jesus must live as he did (1 John 2:5), the world tells us that we can’t be perfect and are doing “good enough”.

It’s time to for us to wake up to the Truth, recognize who Jesus is, and who we are as his followers. We need to be part of the solution and to stop contributing to the problem. We are to lead with love, we are to exemplify grace… We are called to be perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect (Matt. 5:48).

We will all fall on our face, we will stumble, and some, like myself, will even wander from the Path completely, but when all else fails, we must remember love. Not the human emotion we call love, but the love of the Father. A love that is patient, kind, not self-seeking, keeping no record of wrong (1 Cor. 13:4-7). With this love we will carry each other’s burdens, elevate those are down, and give sight to the blind- showing the world that not only is Jesus our King… But we should all be grateful He IS.

My prayer for you, is that God will reveal Himself to you in a radical way, so that we can radically impact the world together. After all, we’re called to do nothing less. God Bless you!

By His Grace, For His Glory,

Daniel

“And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So, from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” – 2 Corinthians 5:15-17