It's funny to me how when things happen to people that "deserve" it by someone's measure, something in my heart wants to take their place. I'm not quite sure what that is. That girl who has been messing around behind her boyfriend's back deserves the STD she got even if it was from something years ago. Doesn't she? And yet, my heart shatters at the thought of it all because I can't help but feel like no one deserves that.
I don't know if that's the heart of Christ or just naivety. I've turned the concept over and over in my mind for years and still have yet to draw a conclusion.
I think maybe what it must be is that Christ didn't choose for whom He died and for whom He did not. He died for generations previous to Him, those with Him and those after. He wasn't picky with His grace, with His love. He saw something worthy of redeeming, worthy of loving in EVERYONE! That's pretty incredible to me.
Yes, He died for Mother Theresa, but He died for Hitler, too. That means that beneath all of the hatred and deception and malice was a man worth saving--a man that could be saved.
It's funny how our choices decide whether or not we actually are saved, however. I mean that I have a choice. Hitler had a choice. Paul had a choice. If we're being honest, Paul basically was Hitler. On a lesser numerical scale. He hunted down Christians and had them slaughtered. That is, until God knocked him on his ass. Paul had a choice to make and he made it.
All this to say I think the reason my heart breaks even when those who, by most all standards, are getting what they deserve... I believe at one point, a very, very long time ago, no one deserved misfortune or mistreatment. I think that if Christ saw something worth redeeming in me, then there must be something worth redeeming and saving in so many others.
Because people can say I'm a "good" person, that I have an upstanding moral character, but by whose standard am I being judged? The law's? Great. I have managed to not get caught or been prosecuted for breaking any laws. By some vague code of conduct? By what the majority accepts as "good" or "bad"? No, thank you.
I think to live in a world where I am better than someone because of what I "do" is to live in a world without humanity (that is, in the sense of being humane). It's like the scene in 2012 (not a good movie, but makes an excellent point at this juncture) where the politicians and diplomats are basically refusing "commoners" to board the arks because those on board earned their place and those on the ground had "earned" theirs.
When people suddenly have the ability to decide someone is better than someone else, it opens a can of mutant worms. We have the right to condemn, to judge based on our own system of merit.
I would honestly rather live in a world where sin is sin, no matter how grave, how dire. We are equal with vile, sinful, selfish, black hearts. But we are also all redeemed, all saved, all covered by grace. I think because of this... When you see that someone is on your level, not above you with their noses in the air or below you for you to tread on, I think it makes it just one little bit easier to love that person.
Because we hate those that make us feel small and despise those that are "less". But if everyone actually saw it the way it is... If Christians saw "non-believers" as people not to be sneered at or looked down upon, and "non-believers" saw Christians not as these uppity, self-righteous bigots, I think hearts would change. And whether everyone chooses to "believe" or not, accepts salvation or doesn't, I think it would start a chain reaction starting with civility and humility and ending with love.
At the end of the day, that sounds pretty damn good to me.
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