Hate the Stink, Love the Stinker

by mtnorwaymommy

I need mercy.  How about you?

So many times in my life I’ve overstepped my boundaries.  I’ve said something terrible, that I couldn’t retrieve, or sometimes, just something stupid or unkind.

Like the time I blurted out, “So, that would make you a late bloomer…” Yikes! Could I be more insensitive? (Probably.) That required a phone call, with a BIG, “I’m sorry.  That didn’t come out the way I meant it too…”

Or the time I carried on about someone’s tire tracks on my lawn.  Angrily, I might add, and in their hearing.  Yet another penitent phone call. You’d think I liked the taste of crow, but I don’t.  Not fried, not boiled, not stirfried with baby corn.  Yet, I continue to have to retract my words and ask for forgiveness.

Am I alone here?  I don’t think so.

I’ve been selfish, choosing me over someone else.

I’ve been impatient and irritable.  I have a picture of Rick and Katie in Eastern Washington.  Katie must’ve been two.  Cute, squeezeable, happy little two-year-old.  She was making goofy faces for the camera, and I wanted a “nice” picture. I didn’t say it very nicely, and it wasn’t even necessary.  But I got a serious picture allright.  She looks like her mommy just smacked her.  That picture still makes me sad.

Thankfully, my kids forgive me.  And they have so many things to choose from when it comes to having mercy on their mom.  Thank you, Katie, Rachel, Anna, Richard, and Samuel, for loving the stinker in me. Thank you, Rick, for patiently forgiving me when I stink.

It encourages my heart that the people who know me best, love me most.  It gives me hope that a perfect Heavenly Father will indeed wipe away the stinky things I do, when I ask Him.  I need that kind of merciful love.

Jesus, our best-Christmas-gift ever, is full of compassion to people who really need it (evidently, this would include anyone who is honest about their life.) He gives grace, instead of condemnation.  He provides positive direction, instead of recrimination.  And He paid for sin, so that we could wake up each day with a clean start.  Forgiven!

When I think of how Jesus approached people, I often think of the story of the woman caught in adultery. Here it is.  Take a few seconds to read it, so we can all be on the same page.

John 8:3-11 (NIV)

³ The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group ⁴ and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” ⁶ They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. ⁷ When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” ⁸ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

⁹ At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. ¹⁰ Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

¹¹ “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Here was a woman who was caught, uhm, with her pants down… And Jesus has every right to stand there with his arms crossed and call her some pretty ugly names.  Instead, He reminds the religious leaders that they are sinners, too.  They move on, but Jesus stays until He and the woman can have a private conversation.  Then He pours in the healing of forgiveness, with a clear call to something better.

He doesn’t say that she didn’t sin, but He gives her the clear hope that she can leave the stink of adultery behind, and get on with a fresh start.  A fresh day.

Jesus shows us grace and truth, perfectly housed in the same person.  I’m so thankful for a God who knows me the very best, but loves me the most.

I am humbled by Jesus, who hates the stink that I sometimes wallow in, but loves me, the stinker, with a faithful, perfect love.

Afterall, it’s what I need; it’s what you need.