You Can't Rush This Kind Of Judgment

There's a question that keeps creeping up as I walk this incredible journey with the Lord. It always follows some epiphany in my study, or my arrival at a peaceful place in my prayer life. It sounds something like this:

"This is so basic! Why didn't anyone tell me before now?"

I know I thought it when I first realized why Christ's death was enough to make me acceptable in the sight of God. And no, I didn't fully understand it when I first realized my salvation.

I know I thought it when I first became convicted of modest dress for the sake of Godly love toward my Brothers in the Lord. And their wives.

I'm pretty sure I thought it when I first came to understand that God's Word was spiritual food to be taken in fresh daily, like the manna that sustained the Israelites in their wanderings.

This is going to sound shocking, but keep reading. Lately, I've been re-learning that my relationship is with the God-man, Jesus Christ-- not His Bible. I caught myself telling the girls that everything in the Bible is absolutely and completely true, but that not everything that is absolutely and completely true is in the Bible. So, the question comes up again.

And then I happened upon James 4. It's the chapter that starts with the question about why we're fighting with one another? There's no great mystery there. Nobody is speaking in analogies that are only available to those with ears to hear. I've read it before. But today it felt so new. So much more complete than ever before. God's Word is alive that way, and it's all just so basic.

Think about it: fights, arguments, contentions, strivings and grudges.

The Bible says they all stem from selfishness. Every episode of grievance can be traced to a moment in which I didn't get what I wanted from the person I'm holding hostage in my anger.

And--no--it most certainly does not take two to tango! One person is perfectly capable of launching and sustaining a full-blown assault on another with no rebuttal at all. Especially in the invisible, virtual world of the blogosphere. I know. I've seen it.

Anyway, I found that it's a very interesting exercise--this exercise in the diagnostics of anger--because the yelling, the silence, the criticism, the irritation, the avoidance, the confrontation, the hatred, the ridicule, the gossip--each and every one is just a symptom of a disease.

Sometimes it's easy to decipher what the "want" is. Like...when my girls are bickering, you can be pretty sure that there is a toy car or animal figurine in one or the other's hand. Other times, the diagnosis takes a little more thought--a bit more self-examination.

I've caught myself being less-than-enamored with some folks in my large circle of interaction. Folks that I don't really know well. They appear to be a certain way, follow a certain standard, value a certain thing--and none is really very far from where I am, if at all. So then, why do I feel myself irritated at them on occasion? Why am I not more accepting of them? Why do I sometimes simply avoid them?

The Bible says it's because I want something that I'm not getting. But what? I don't want that certain way to be mine. I don't want any other standard than the one the Lord has called me to in this time. I might value that same certain thing and be lacking in it, but I don't expect them to be able to give it to me.

So what is it? What do they have that I want?

The thing I want but do not get is...their approval. Their acceptance. And that, of course, is to desire the praise of man. And that, in turn, is a snare. It is the very next thought expressed in James, "You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives." And desiring man's praise is a wrong motive. It doesn't mean getting another's praise is bad, but the desiring is not profitable. Think of it in the same way as the "money" exhortation that says, "the love of money is the root of all evil." The money, itself, isn't evil; the love of it is.

And, you know, I can see this need for the praise of others at work in every instance of blog bickering I've surfed upon. It's all over the place when people are defending discussing educational choices for their children. And family size. And dress. And movies. And blah. And blah. And blah.

Perhaps before we press the "Submit" button, we ought to examine ourselves with the brutally clear Word offered us in James.

Are we angry? Are we defensive? Are we stewing or simmering? Are we seeking destruction?

Why? What do we want that we aren't getting? And is there any right motive with which to bring it to our Heavenly Father?

If not, let us then press the backspace button. And thank the Lord for His love that constrains us.