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This is No Place for Cowards
By Thom Hunter
I carry the past that each day I choseOne step to another . . . now everyone knows.It isn't the past I would have wanted to claimBut it is my past . . . it is mine just the same.I wonder sometimes about all of thisCan there be no exchanging what was for what is? Will there be no will be because of what's done? Will yesterday's darkness eclipse today's sun? Is forgiveness a mystery, a want too far-flung? Is healing a melody not to be sung? Is change just a hold-out, dangled just past the grasp? Is grace to be rationed . . . with some of us passed? No mystery, no silence, withholding or rationBut clearly and justly and full of compassionForgiveness and grace for changing and healing  Are given to us through our Savior's revealing.Through faith in His love, through trust in His grace,Our past just becomes our starting-out place.He is there when we stumble, He is there when we stand If we rise through the strength of His out-stretched hand.
-- Thom Hunter 
 
It stands to reason to me that if we, as Christians, can embrace the idea that badthings happen to good people . . . then we would be able to wrap our arms aroundthe idea that good people -- even Christians -- do a fair amount of those bad things.And then we could wrap our good Christian arms around those that did it and thosethat hid it at the same time we comfort those that got pummeled by it. "It" being sin.Surely our arms are bigger than we let on. Surely, there is mercy and forgivenessand grace abounding. Surely we can restore the sinner with the same hope werescue the sinned-against. Surely God's love -- which is to be in us -- is enough tocover all.Surely.We're so concerned with preserving goodness that we blind ourselves to the ever-threatening badness, fooling ourselves into thinking we can purge it, despite God'sclear warning it will always be with us. We need to deal with it, not delude ourselvesinto thinking that our purity affords us some protection He didn't even offer His ownSon. We think if we deal harshly with those who have succumbed to temptation thatwe might find ourselves somehow supernaturally separated from it and unable to fall.Look out below.We're so determined to flee that we opt for banishment instead of reconstruction.Go weep and wail and gnash your teeth; we're praising in here. We build wallswhere we should build alliances against the evil that is stripping others bare rightbefore our eyes. Sometimes we bow down in solitude when we should stand insolidarity. We nurse our own little nicks from contact with sin rather than addressingthe gaping wounds of those who are being slashed to pieces from within.
We
all 
, like sheep, have gone astray,
each
of us has turned to his own way;and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. -- Isaiah 53:6 
Did you get that?
 All 
.
Each.
If you know someone who thinks somehow he is notone of the sheep; has not gone astray; has not turned to his own way . . . pray for him. His sins weigh as heavily as yours, but his blinders are a deeper tint.We pray "give me Your eyes . . . give me Your heart . . . give me Your hands."Why? So we can see . . . and feel . . . and do, like He would do. We don't pray"blind me and bind me and callous my heart." Yet we sometimes pray "hide me inthe cleft of the rock," but for all the wrong reasons. Not for security and salvation . . .but for refuge from the challenging restlessness of the world in which He placed us.
 
This is no place for cowards.This is a place for courage.Courage to carry out courageous commandments.
 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples,that you love one another. -- John 13:34-35.
That you . . .
 judge
. . . one another? That you . . .
condemn
. . . one another? Thatyou . . .
shame
. . . one another? That you . . .
blame
. . . one another? Thatyou . . .
reject 
. . . one another? That you . . .
remove
. . . one another? Thatyou . . .
ignore
. . . one another?No. Love.We're not
here
forever: we're
there
forever. Glory. But, while we temporarily residein
gory 
, with glory in our future, can we not be a bit less cautious? A little lesscringing before the mess? Our knees are meant to help us surrender, but it is to Himwe surrender so we can rise in His righteousness, not so we can hide beneath Hisrobes.This is the world, chock-full with God's creation, from yellow butterflies floating inglorious freeness to hardened murderers pacing concrete cells, from babies cooingto drunkards cursing, from couples pledging forever fidelity to adulterers pursuingdestructive infidelity, from children sitting on a sunset beach with a snow cone tochildren crowded into a dark room longing for a cracker, from a grandmother knittingbooties while rocking next to a table filled with pictures of her legacy, to agrandfather striving to picture all the ones who come behind him but choose not toknow him.This is the world, bright and dingy, clear and cloudy, green and gray, life-giving anddeath-dealing, abundant and barren, pure and stained, refreshing and repelling,blissful and blighted, rejoicing and recoiling, accepting and rejecting. It turns towardus with outstretched hands; it turns against us with a slap. It heals; it hurts. There isso much give and take that we often know not what we have or for how long.This is no place for cowards.
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