Let’s think for a minute that you, like most people, have things for which you hold a hard position on. No matter what, you say you’ve just made up your mind. It’s the hill you’ve chosen to die on…
 
That is…until something changes.
 
The hill I like is the one called Never.
 
I used to say never. As in, “I will never…” or, “I would never…” Do you see where I’m going? Seemed I always ended up doing it and conveniently, there’d always be someone there to point it out…in a group…and often, disrespectfully.
 
Folks do like to wag the crooked finger, don’t they?
 
People of faith should know that the Lord will change things. He has to. Otherwise, we would just continue to try and inject old thought processes and habits into new life.
 
Doesn’t work. Can’t work.
 
That old human nature is hard to overcome. It’s one of the reasons that living a surrendered life is tough for us. We don’t want to give up our authority. Over ourselves or anything else for that matter.
 
If you can’t allow your mind to be changed, you can forget ever turning away from evil. If you won’t allow your mind to be changed, repentance will continue to be an alien concept.
 
Romans 12:2 tells us that we must renew our minds or we are destined to remain conformed to the rationale and principles of this world. This renewal is a constant in the life of the believer. It sounds cliche but it is true that the more we learn, the more we find that we don’t know. We must allow the Holy Spirit liberty to teach us.
 
If we expect the Lord to express pardon with respect to our own wish-washiness, then should we not express that same pardon to our brothers and sisters? Or anyone else, for that matter.
 
Being a Christian should make us as different but try as we might, as faithful as we want to be, we are still human and prone to human emotion.
 
Sometimes things change and we are forced to change with them. Circumstances, minds, environments, feelings, family. This is when an expression of benevolence is called for. Especially if you lack the reason why.
 
So try not to point the crooked finger. One day it might be you.
 
Right?
 
-Pastor Butch