The Salty Peanut Gallery

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” – Matthew 5:43

NFL referee Bill Leavy is asking the Seattle Seahawks and their fans for forgiveness. Speaking candidly after four and a half years to Seattle reporters about his officiating performance during the bitter Super Bowl XL loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, he acknowledged the mistakes he made during the game. “I kicked two calls in the fourth quarter and I impacted the game,” Leavy told Seattle-area media Friday. “I will go to my grave wishing I’d been better.” He went on to say, “I know that I did my best at that time, but it wasn’t good enough.”

“I think all of the officials we have in the NFL are stand-up guys, and Leavy is no different,” Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. “It’s a game. It’s not a perfect science. There’s a lot of human involvement there.

“I played some games that I remember because I felt like I did a good job and I played some games where I had some regrets. That goes for any sport, any player. I’m sure coaching is no different, and in that same way I’m sure officiating is the same thing.”

When asked if he’d be willing to accept Leavy’s apology, Hasselbeck, a devout Christian, told reporters, “I’m still a little upset about losing my high school state championship game. There are just some games you’re never going to forget. Put it on the list.”

It’s hard sometimes even for believers to forgive and forget. I recently came across a list that I had made some fifteen years ago of hurts, resentments or grudges in which I needed to find freedom. There were twenty-four names on that list of people who for one reason or another had caused me pain. Twenty-four people who I was struggling to forgive. I remembered at the time having sort of a “come to Jesus” moment in which I prayed and gave every one of those names to the Lord and asked God to help me love those people. And the funny thing is fifteen years later I find myself struggling to even remember who many of those people were and what they had done to hurt me. God had answered my prayers.

I say, “many of those people,” but unfortunately not all. Looking back on that list I still see one name that continues to haunt me. One name that fifteen years later is now joined by other new names of different people from which I’ve suffered hurt. And I find myself once again needing God’s grace to be able to forgive.

Forgiveness is not an easy thing to do. Oh it’s one thing to forgive someone for one indiscretion or injustice, for harsh words said in the heat of a moment or a careless action that brings you pain. But what about those people that continue to hurt you year after painful year with no signs of remorse and no willingness to acknowledge their offenses? What are we to do with them?

Oh, we could fight back. We could practice hurling zingers at them, waiting for just the right occasion. We could give them a piece of our mind, though it’s been my experience that most of us can’t spare a bit. We could confront them and demand an apology. We could shun them. We could put up a wall so that they’ll never be able to hurt us again. But none of that ever really takes away the hurt, does it?

Or we can learn to love them.

“But Lord, I don’t want to love them! I want them to get what’s coming to them! I want them to pay for what they’ve done to me! I want the heavens to open up and fire and brimstone to fall out of the sky! I want justice to be served!”

No, I need God’s grace to be able to love them. See, it’s real easy to love the nice people in this world. We don’t need to be told how to do that. It just sort of comes naturally. But Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” That requires a lot more effort, doesn’t it?

“But how, Lord? How do I get past this? How can I just overlook what they’ve done?”

Jesus said, “Pray for those who persecute you.” We generally think of persecution coming from nonbelievers. But Christians can very often times be the source of great trouble in our lives. And the first step toward finding healing in those relationships and freedom from resentment is prayer. As we begin to pray for those individuals who have hurt us, the Lord forms a bond between us. As we pray, our hearts become united with God’s heart as He opens our spiritual eyes to their needs. When the needs of others begin to burden our hearts the way they burden God’s heart, we begin to love.

“Dear Lord, I need so desperately to be freed from these bitter resentments that I continue to carry. I ask your blessing on my persecutors. Would you meet them where they are right now and pour out your mercy? Please, burden my heart with their needs and help me learn to love them. Amen.”

The world is a cruder place than it was twenty or thirty years ago. Not so long ago there were certain words you couldn’t say on television or print in newspapers. Nowadays the use of coarse language is perfectly acceptable. We are becoming a nation of potty-mouths. Language that used to be deemed inappropriate in polite society is now commonplace, so much so that many in the Christian community have even adopted it. Common language that everyone else in the English speaking world uses and hears on a daily basis is considered okay. It creeps into our casual conversation, our blog posts, our emails, our text messages, this infatuation with the vulgar aspects of contemporary culture.

The “vulgarization” of Christianity is even being evidenced in our evangelism. We’re repeatedly told by the experts how important it is for the church to “engage the culture.” Evangelical strategists and savvy church leaders keep telling us that Christians need to be more tuned into contemporary culture. “We need to take the message out of the bottle.” To accomplish this some pastors are resorting to vocabulary and subject matter that is at times tasteless, indecent, crude, and utterly inappropriate for a minister of Christ. Some Christian movie makers have also begun incorporating adult themes and coarse language in their work.

In defense of one such movie a brother recently explained to me that this kind of film was intended for nonbelieving audiences, to be shown outside the church, that these kinds of raw images depict real life situations that the unchurched can relate to. And after all, did Jesus really say we shouldn’t use swear words anyway? Are we even sure that people used swear words in Jesus day?

Fair enough. Though Jesus himself may not have spoken directly to the issue of swearing, here’s what Paul had to say:

Ephesians 5:4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

Colossians 3:8-10 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

The point is this. I don’t care what you think pop culture says is acceptable, because we have new life, because we have a risen life, certain things should characterize us. The Bible says we are to discard the rags of our old life and put on the righteousness of our new life in Christ. After all how can we ever possibly hope to have any kind of positive impact on this world for the sake of the kingdom if our lives are no different than anyone else? How in heaven’s name could we ever think that God would want us to draw people to Christ with communication that is displeasing to Him and so contrary to His character? That to me is a Christianity that is inauthentic and a gospel that is irrelevant. Jesus said, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” – John 12:32. Drawing people to Jesus is Christ’s job. We are merely the vessels He chooses to use. Let’s be sure we represent Him well.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was caught attempting to use scripture in public again, demonstrating once more what little regard and how little understanding she really has for the spiritual truths she asserts. The speaker had this to say at a May 6 Catholic Community Conference on Capitol Hill:

“They ask me all the time, ‘What is your favorite this? What is your favorite that? What is your favorite that?’ And one time, ‘What is your favorite word?’ And I said, ‘My favorite word? That is really easy. My favorite word is the Word, is the Word. And that is everything. It says it all for us. And you know the biblical reference, you know the Gospel reference of the Word.

Fill it in with anything you want. But, of course, we know it means: ‘The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.’ And that’s the great mystery of our faith. He will come again. He will come again. So, we have to make sure we’re prepared to answer in this life, or otherwise, as to how we have measured up.”

Oh, where to begin. For someone who delights in labeling the growing opposition movement as being “artificial”, it’s so ironic, even laughable to see the speaker gushing and feigning reverence over the beauty of the word “Word”. As Michelle Malkin’s blog put it, “Kind of like watching Jack Kevorkian trying to gain the trust of attendees at an AARP convention, isn’t it?”

“Oh, the Word. It’s the Word. I love the Word. It’s so beautiful, the Word. Let’s all say it together. The Word. Ooh, it makes me all tingly inside…”

Would that Ms. Pelosi had half a clue what she was talking about. “We have to give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the values of the Word.” Oh, really. I wonder, would that include her abysmal voting record on abortion, not to mention voting against the 2003 ban on partial-birth abortion? Would that include bearing false witness against the Tea Party movement, referring to it as “AstroTurf” and “faux-grass roots” and mischaracterizing it as swastika carrying hate-mongering. Would that include not living up to her pledge to “drain the swamp”, turning this Congress into “the most honest and open Congress in history.” Would that include quoting nonexistent passages of scripture in defense of her liberal extremist environmental policies? Is that what she means?

“Fill it in with anything you want” is more like it. Speaker Pelosi did get one thing right. One day we all will have to answer for “how we have measured up” in this life. Fact is we will all have to stand before God and give an account for what we did with “The Word”. I wonder, Ms. Pelosi, have you placed your trust in The Word as savior? Have you received forgiveness of sin and cleansing from all unrighteousness? Have you received the gift of eternal life paid for by the precious blood of Jesus? Have you experienced the total transformation that faith in Jesus Christ provides? What will your answer be?

Things aren’t always as they seem. This’ll make you do a double take. How do they do it?

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