Does it make any sense to sit here and take all these insults and false accusations? One by one, observing the anti-Christlike puppetry instigated by the king of darkness himself, unfolding right before my eyes! Is this entertainment, reality or madness??? For what purpose do I deserve to witness this for myself?

Why should it matter that I constantly have to show mercy even if I quite frankly don’t FEEL like it? Why should I care? Is it because I was once “that” caterpillar with an oh-so-sweet and unassumingly helpless exterior on the outside with a toxically mean sting and interior to whomever dared to come close enough? Or is it because at anytime, I could very well be right back into that same miserable cocoon again - living a life leading straight to self deception, destruction and ultimately death? Why should I care? 

THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT IT IS NOT ABOUT ME!!! It was NEVER intended to be about me PERIOD.

See, LIFE. Living in utter darkness and not even knowing that darkness is where you’re AT is the most frightening thing in retrospect for the one who HAS found the light. Malice, jealousy, secret hatred, chronic unforgiveness, greed, selfishness, lust…WOW…all previous character traits that plagued my being until I literally got arrested and high-jacked by the Holy Spirit of Christ Jesus.

Stopped dead in the tracks of a downward spiraling yet intoxicatingly sweet journey towards death by a BIG FAT MIRROR YELLING OUT YOUR FILTH is called tough love! “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (Proverbs 27:6). Jesus is the one and only true friend that knows how to best take you through a season of pain that IS GUARANTEED to produce a lifetime of fruit in the best you! I attest to be a living witness of this fact, so help me God. 

At the end of the day, the choice is really ours to make: pursue my flesh and be completely consumed by it until God is fed up of my destruction and has to “arrest” me with His undying selfless and persistent love through a “meat cleaver process” or simply yield to Him by obedience NOW, enjoy basking in His presence and be transformed as a new creature in His very own likeness as I get to know Him day by day through a sweet and savory “marinating process?”

Having gone through both processes one after the other by His grace, I am now DAILY challenged with an even bigger question. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO OFFER to those lost souls in and out, up and down your life? Will I join the band wagon of folly, idle chatter, backbiting, slander and unforgiveness since I can’t beat it? Mayhaps try to rebuke the swine with my pearls of wisdom? Or **PAUSE** and think just for a sec about how just as lost, blind, broken and wretched I once was before my savior SAVED me?

why should you care? 

In my own strength I really shouldn’t! BUT the fact that by the special grace of the almighty God through His word and by His Holy Spirit I am “SAVED” and “ABOVE” those sinful struggles that once raptured my soul and could have easily put me in an eternity of blazing hell fire makes me just that more sensitive and compassionate to write off ANYBODY no matter how pissed or rightfully offended I may FEEL. So I REFUSE NOT TO NOT CARE because if He didn’t care for me… who knows? I probably would have never even lived to tell you the story of how He brought me through it all. selah…

Here’s a good start. Be TRANSFORMED in your mind by the renewing power of His word provoking us to LOVE IN ACTION at all times from Romans 12: 12-21. 

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Siiiiigh……..it is HARD. it HURTS I know, but it’s going to be worth it all - IT IS TIME TO REFOCUS, MOVE ON AND FORGIVE!