I recently spoke at a college service and before we began, a group of folks gathered to pray. The college pastor introduced me to the group and said “Jonathan’s from Cincinnati,” he paused and then said “But he’s really from Georgia.” There was a student in the group who hooped and hollered when he said I was from Cincinnati and then playfully booed when she was told I was from Georgia.
 
After the prayer time, I introduced myself and asked what part of Cincinnati the girl was from. She said, well I’m actually from Northern Kentucky.
 
A meaningful reflection of Jesus happens as we do our job of extending grace.
 
What?!?! Northern Kentucky? I started giving her a hard time…How could she boo me for not being born and bred in Cincinnati when she wasn’t either?  She said, “I grew up like five minutes from the bridge…It counts, right?” In her mind, close was close enough, but being the literalist I am, I begged to differ…The map say’s she’s from Kentucky.
 
This playful, unimportant scenario is a good picture of what can happen when we deal with others about spiritual things. It is so easy to deal with others harshly when we should extend grace. When we encounter, people struggling with sin, we tend to judge instead of love. We offer an opinion instead of encouragement.
 
Truth: We tend to judge people who struggle in an area we do not, but offer grace when people struggle in an area similar to which we struggle.
 
Our communication towards others is often based upon how well we perceive ourselves to be doing. If we think we’re succeeding, we get judgy with someone who is failing. The girl booed me for not being from Cincinnati because she viewed herself as citizen of Cincinnati. The problem is, she wasn’t from Cincinnati either. And just like the girl, we all have areas where we struggle and fall short of God’s standards. This fact alone should compel us to offer grace and encouragement instead of judgement. We are in need of God’s grace and mercy just like everyone else we encounter.
 
God is the judge and He’s good at it! Instead of trying to do His, job, let’s focus on our job which is to love, serve, and encourage others toward Him.
 
Keep Reflecting Jesus!