We all want to be the hero, we are just as likely the villian...

I wanted black hats or white ones to be clear.  I wanted to either make one a hero or vilify them.  Maybe that is an exaggeration but I wanted things to be clear.  Write someone off or welcome them deep into the heart.  Maybe the extremes show up the thought pattern.  Maybe it is good to look at the extremes.  To touch them.  To pause long enough to let their reality sink in...

To be honest with ourselves and see how true those tendencies are within our human hearts.  "Either or," is so much better than living under the dynamic tension of the, "Both and."  We see camps set up around "this" or "that,"  the old story of Capulets and Montagues never ceasing.

I want to be "right," and I want to know that I know that I know that I am "right."

I want to know who the "bad guys," are because then I can know.

I want to know what it takes to be a "good guy," because then I can know.

I want the path to see to be clear, without question.  That way I can check off all the right boxes... I am doing this" right," I am not doing that so I am "right."

The age old question, "Who's my neighbor?" "How many times do I need to forgive?"  We want those answers. Are we still offended by the story of the Good Samaritan?  Of course NOT, not when read in historical context...  Because, we of the modern era here in the West don't always fully understand the dynamic of the Samaritan or women or the tax collector in the times of Jesus.  But I am sure it would only take a moment, if we paused, and think who the equivalent is in our times.  Who does Christendom shun?  Who do we say collectively (without the heart and eyes of Christ) are those that wear the black hats?  What it would do if we merged the two and realized that we can all be white washed tombs and we can all be covered with pig slop?
                                                                                    I realize I am both the publican

and the pharisee....  I have both within me..  So then it is the grace and love of God that empowers us towards finding our likeness in Him.  That likeness compels us to welcome in the stranger, get "unclean," when the proverbial woman with the issue of blood or the leper would touch us!  Instead of allowing fear to separate and build boundaries we, as those baring the image of our Creator, need to be building the bonds like unto what Jesus did in His times.....                      

More than also welcoming the stranger and the neighbor, we must learn to welcome within us that tension between our heroic virtues and the villainous nature.  The fruit of the spirit and the deeds of the flesh.  The times where we like Paul are exasperated because we are doing things we don't really want to be doing and the things we do desire to do we can't step into.   Paul fought the good fight.  He ran the race.  We can too.

It is so less about hero and villain and so much more about people in need of love and forgiveness and kindness.  It is the kind nature of God that leads us into repentance and it is the job of the Holy Spirit to lead each and everyone of us into all truth. The walk is about tension. The walk is about trust.  The walk is about accepting our limitations and weaknesses along with our strengths and giftings and holding them all out as before the Lord.

Today if we can accept our limitations and those in others and choose love, choose forgiveness, choose the wider definition of neighbor ... we will choose blessings, we will choose the Heart of Jesus and we will walk in His ways!