To be honest, I feel like I’ve gone through the wringer. I’m having trouble at work (I’ve even approached a labour mediator, who will set in motion, arbitration for unfair labour practises….and that is still pending…boy, is the poo-poo going to hit the fan when my boss finds out & I’m dreading it…….in fact the future is looking so uncertain right now); I was stressing in traffic jams this morning & JUST made it to work in time………….so right now I’m stressed…feeling not so nice (vast understatement) and really feel like I don’t have the strength or heart to writethis…but there is something I really want to say….& of course it’s a take it or leave it kinda thing…….

If it is not eloquently or sensibly put….my mood would probably be the cause, so please forgive me……

This may not relate to you, & then if it does, you may well be offended, but here goes……….

I’m not going to point fingers – it’s too scary – besides I had a very bad experience once…..a long time ago…..

I was arguing with a way back then boyfriend, huffed & yelled - “No, YOU!” – jabbing my finger into the air; except that I thrust my finger too far forward & accidentally jabbed said boyfriend in the chest. Now, he had a hard chest, so he felt nothing, but I heard the crack & yowled in pain. The finger swelled up & turned blue. This story of course is completely irrelevant to what I’m about to say, except to say that if I point fingers at someone, it’s invariably me who gets hurt...or at least comes off looking the worst.

There is a story in the book of Luke: The time is approaching for Jesus to be taken up to heaven, and he resolutely set out for Jerusalem. However, en route, he was not welcomed into a Samaritan village, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When James & John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” But Jesus turned & rebuked them. Some translations add that he said you do not understand the spirit you are or you do not understand the Spirit of Christ.

This is what Peter said in his first letter, about the spirit of Christ: “…because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps…when they hurled insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly”

In Paul’s letter to the Philipians, he says “…in humility, consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness…….he humbled himself & became obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place & gave him the name that is above every name..”

It makes no sense to get into a huff if people mock you for what you believe or say….

Jesus is quoted in Matthew as saying rejoice because the same thing happened to the prophets before us….why should we be any different? The same applies now just as it did then. We wear bracelets that have acronyms saying “What would Jesus do” but really what would he do?

God himself said put the adulterers (BTW – both of them, not just the woman) to death. HE passed the laws (and the nature of these laws was to (a) show right from wrong and (b) show us the need for a mediator – to show us the need for grace.) Jesus “who being in the very nature of God" – the same God who gave the sentence for adulterers – stood between the Sanhedrin (the big nogs of Jewish Law) and the adulteress they were about to stone & said, Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

I know it is hard for those who do not believe the message, to reconcile the image of the Hebrew God with the image of the Christian God. But we know the gospel that Paul describes as the gospel as reconciliation.

How then are we reconciling anyone to God by taking offence at how they respond to something they don’t understand….to many it is mythological hogwash….

I know by writing this, I make myself vulnerable………because…well, we all make mistakes, ….but more importantly, do you admit it? Do you aspire to do what is right?

This man, this God, I profess to follow, He laid down His life for me – and so much more…..I think it would be a small thing for him to ask me to hold my tongue & be more tolerant than others…..

Like I said, I’m not pointing fingers…this is as much directed at me as anybody else….