Christ Animated

My sin. It's very personal, because it is mine. It's usually private, because I know that it is sin. It's the one sin I try to justify in my mind and spirit, so I won't hurt so much. It's the one sin I try to expose and rail against so maybe I can be free from it. It's the one whose temptations never seem to leave me. It's the sin I fear the most. Your sin. Yours should be exposed and dealt with. Your sin will find you out! But my sin ... I hope it never catches up to me. I hope I don't hurt others with it. Again. My nasty pet in the corner. Sometimes I play with it. Sometimes it disgusts me. So I throw it out. Then realize later I've let it back in. Oh, God, help me, forgive me, free me. I need You. Because of this sin. Because it is mine. Because it is sin.

I'm not certain what that color is, but it's some kind of brown with a slight reddish tint. Interspersed throughout are dots of varied sizes and red or brown hues. Then, of course, there are blond, brown, gray and white hairs. But this description of my forearms would not be accurate if applied to my upper arms. Much less color and much less hair reside there - a stark contrast. To say I have a farmer's tan would be insulting to farmers. One day last week, I traveled back to Louisiana in my car that has no working air conditioner. So I rode with windows down, as usual. By the time I started my return three-hour drive, my shirt was soaked with sweat from the work I'd been doing outside on that very hot and humid day. My remedy? Iced sweet tea and a sleeveless shirt for the drive. Now my left upper arm is red, and sore. The sun burned my lily white skin. I'm not a redneck. I'm a redarm. 

I have been guilty. Guilty of allowing my defensiveness and indignation to keep me from making a full effort to understand the pain of others. And I was blind to my guilt. For these things, I am truly sorrowful and repentant. I feel so frustrated that my friends and neighbors don't understand one another, and I don't do a great job understanding or explaining, myself. I feel frustrated between a white cop friend and a black friend whose comments show they each don't understand where the other is coming from. I feel the same with friends on opposing sides of the issue of gay marriage, or who they hate more in the presidential race. And I don't always keep my mouth shut, unfortunately. But Jesus said His followers would be distinctly identified by their love for one another. And it's a love that is born of God's love for us, and spills out of loving Him first and others second. May God, the Author of life and love and peace, mercifully pour out all thes...