The Look of Jesus

The look of Jesus in the gospels

changed people's hearts.

If Jesus were to walk our world today

what would He look at first?

I wonder if the first to attract His notice

would be any overwhelming goodness.

Good-hearted people can see goodness everywhere,

evil-hearted people see evil,

we truly see in others

a reflection of ourselves.

Jesus unearths and uncovers

the love, honesty, and goodness

hiding in each person

who attracts His look.

He looks at the prostitute,

and I try to look at here like He does

to discover what He sees in her.

I watch Him look at the despised tax-collector

at the adulterous woman...

at the criminal on the cross beside Him...

I am trying to learn the art of looking.

When Jesus looks where I see malice

He sees ignorance.

At the moment of His own death

I watch Him lower his gaze to His false convictors

beyond their malice,

and He says, "Forgive them, they don't know what they're doing"

What can I learn about the art of looking?

When I walk about my day

and meet a stranger

or walk into a group,

how much goodness can I see

in each person?

I imagine Jesus beside me

teaching me to look in new ways,

to make allowance,

to search for ignorance,

and find good.

Then I expose myself

to the loving look of Jesus.

When my heart looks into the eyes of Jesus,

I am in awe of the goodness He detects in me.

I am quicker to blame myself

for ALL the wrong I do and have done

He stubbornly refuses to condemn me.

I cannot handle it, at first

It is too forgiving

and in my self-hatred, I cannot see

what His loving look sees.

But I am aware I must sustain His look

if I really want to learn to look at others

the way He looks at me.

Separated from love: part 2

It is painful enough to know we have convinced ourselves of this, that God does not love us when we sin or screw up, but there is something even more painful to me.  It is even more painful that out of our inability to understand this we have spilled over into the world around us.  We are convinced that our actions and decisions can separate us from God, and we have enforced this ridiculousness on non-Christians around us.  We have convinced them that God does not love them because of their sin and life decisions. Something is heart-breakingly wrong here!

One of my students did graphic design for some extra cash in college, and one of his bosses was a night club owner, author, and homosexual.  He had been putting the finishing touches on a book, and he asked my student to read the manuscript.  My student had told me a lot of the things he saw in this book.  The book is quite autobiographical and reveals a lot of this man's ideas of God.  His main thought and belief is that God hates him.  He is convinced that God hates him.  He doesn't mention Christians hating him; he is convinced that GOD hates him.  God has completely removed his love from this man as far as he is concerned.

Where does he get this concept?

Likely he gets it from God's people who themselves seem to be convinced (see yesterday's post) that you can be separated from the love of God, and if they believe THEY can be separated from the love of God, then surely so would homosexuals.  So some make signs and scream from megaphones.

But lets be frank; we don't need signs and bullhorns on a street corner do we?  We are capable enough in our minds and comments to condemn homosexuals, drunks, whores, prostitutes and democrats to separation from God's love.

Why do we do this to people?

It appears that we do it to ourselves as well.  We have convinced ourselves that we can be and often are separated from the love of God.  This is crazy enough that we have convinced ourselves of this, but it is breaking my heart that we have convinced the homosexuals, drunks, sluts and divorced of the same thing.

The TRUTH of the matter is:

God doesn't hate 'fags', whores, sinners, or you...

His people do.