look away

i taught a bible study friday night. it was a strangely surreal time. a time when i was wondering if i could clearly convey the heart of God.

i remember one thing i said that strikes me now.

look away.

when noah off loaded the animals, he got completely ripped. he lay naked and passed out.

this is why i love the Bible. no prettying up the characters. no feigning sainthood. just men fumbling around trying to know God.

enter another man.

ham walks over and sees his dad passed out and in the buff. au naturale.

what does the kid do, laughs and goes to call his brothers.

such a classic retelling of that scenario. man, i do stuff like that all the time. i laugh at the most tragic moments.

but his brothers, ah yes, they are the ones i want to model in these days. they picked up a cloth, probably some animal skin, and backed up to their father and covered him with the cloth.

they did not even lay their eyes upon him. and they covered him with Love.

i believe this is how God would have us live amongst each other. my foibles and flaws are so evident, so clear. it is as if i were passed out in the buff.

there are those who get a kick out of it.

but there are those who look away. those who seek to minister to me in my spiritual inebriation.

these days when i see or hear someone saying or behaving in a way that is unfitting an Heir of Righteousness. i pray. i lash out in tongues. i try to quiet myself and look away.

a dear friend of mine said,

i don't want to go to hell, but i'm not sure i want to go to heaven either.

he was rebuked, and i went to him as he went outside for a smoke.

friend,

i said,

God can do more with your honesty than He can with someone who says only what others want to hear.

he looked at me and smiled.

there are moments, fleeting though they may be, when we get to minister to the Body of Christ. i live for those moments.

God's heart is to stand beside anyone backing up to a brother in the buff. God's heart is to deal in honesty. sure that honesty may be tough to hear, but i'm tired of the church saying the easy things.

i am tired of the church opting for the "right answer" when no answer is needed.

how i wish my friend would have been embraced rather than driven away. how i wish my arms weren't so stiff and my heart so hard that i could have embraced him there.

if you see my many flaws, do me this one kindness:

look away.