Graceful Silence

Mini-soapbox time!

Christians, can we try being graceful and gentle with those people who go against our grain, instead of labeling them "idiots" and reigning over our own little ethical hierarchy?

I just don't think the belief that we're right should be standing in opposition to our call to truth and relationships. It's hard to bring people in to our truth when all they see is how low you place them and how high you are.

I believe that grace, truth, and gentleness should characterize the life of every Christ follower, in every aspect. From our waking to our sleeping - from our rising to our lying down. Every word we say, every person we affect needs to be impacted by the Christ-likeness within us.

We can argue it out with the fact that even Jesus got angry when people were working against the truth, or that Jesus was not always "graceful" or "gentle", but it comes down to the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and we are not, though some need much convincing of this sometimes. We are not God, and we don't have all the authority to throw harsh terms and harsher judgments around. God is the avenger - we need to continue on and impact the world.

I think sometimes we need to forget how vehemently we believe our ethics and accept people for who they are, even if they believe things contrary to what we believe and even if we know that we won't teach them the truth. We can't give up, we can't treat them any differently, because we are Christians, and we are all sinners.

Just because we know the truth doesn't mean we are any higher or any better than anyone else. We need to get over ourselves and move on to Christ. I think a lot of people are deferred from Christianity because some of us are so set in their beliefs and so passionate about defending them that we actually hinder the progress of the faith. If I can't speak with grace, it might be better for me to learn to be okay with not speaking out so much...