I don't know when I grew up :(

Somehow, when I wasn't looking, I got old.

I got cynical, jaded, disillusioned.

And I'm not the only one.

Somewhere along the line, I think I began to get sick of 'young punks'.

It jumped up at me today. All of a sudden the low buzz of a normal IGNYTE service really got to me. I started seeing these groups of young kiddos (in my mind, I sometimes tend to speak like an ol' west-ern cawlboy) with all em' rootin' and tootin', and I don't know why, but I think I was actually starting to get annoyed.

I was getting annoyed at the short attention span; I was getting annoyed at the constant inane comments at every other statement; I was getting annoyed at the greater emphasis on people and situations than on God.

So I was busy getting all fumed up, when I walked over to Sister Kassey, happily sitting at the back on her laptop. And I asked her the important question:

"how do you deal with it?"

She smiled and just said "Love God, Love His people".

She said it like someone who knew the depth of that statement, of it's ramifications.

I remember when I was younger, I used to wonder why my oldest sister would seem to have such a low regard of my friends than I did. I wondered why I saw them as good friends, amazing people, yet my sister saw them as pretentious whiners who didn't know anything. When you compare the two, it becomes quite obvious: they were my friends, and I had a deep love for them.

You see, the Bible describes to us in the New Testament the difference between the Love and the Law. The Love brings Salvation, the Law brings Damnation. The Love brings grace, the Law brings punishment. The Love brings mercy, the Law brings judgement. And that was exactly what I was doing.

Without looking with love, I was looking through the Law; I was looking with eyes of judgement. I was judging them, yes, with the Law of God, but without the Love of God.

And when I started looking and removing that lens of judgement, I began to realise some really important things. Essentially, that I used to be just like that. I had an attention span so short it was basically measured in millimetres (I love sugar, on an unrelated note). I constantly made inane comments, mostly because I thought I was really amusing, and I was such a smartmouth I always had something to say to anything. And I used to put greater emphasis on the atmosphere of the service, on the people, than on the God of the people.

And more than that, I realised that as time passed, these things naturally faded. In time, they would probably experience it too. Yeh, them too wud sum day hang up ya'll boots, an put em' glory days behind yah. Used ta call me ol' Slick, cause I'd draw em' like I saw em', quick as a whip.



So to recap,
Law + Human Nature = Judgement + Hypocrisy
Law + Human Nature + Love of God = Understanding + Empathy

(note to self: western cowboy accents work better in person.)