“A person’s wisdom yields patience; 
it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.” Proverbs 19:11

You can know glory today, for someone will certainly offend you!

Many of us, when offended by others, choose to be hurt, plot our revenge, lash out in hostility and then bite back. This demonstrates a deficit of wisdom by yielding no patience, for only feelings rule our hearts in moments like these, not glory.

Wisdom chooses to resist the tempting urge to react revengefully when someone offends us. This is the mark of human maturity—only immature children quickly bite back, right? Thank God things are so much different now that we’ve grown up.

When we become offended, anger can quickly escalate us to a “temporary insanity,” which can easily cause us to misjudge an offense and retaliate out of proportion. Patience is the wise choice to regain our sanity before reacting to an offense.

We must choose a spirit that finds glory in forgiving those who hurt us, by choosing the way of overlooking personal minor offenses.

We will all most likely have opportunities to be offended today by someone. We’ll also have numerous opportunities to practice wisdom, patience, love, grace and glory.

What will we do?

Will we yield patience, overlook an offense, and glory in an opportunity to show the grace of Christ in our lives? Or will we bite back out of hurt feelings and pride, to only discover that we are proud fools in need of greater wisdom?

http://31days.crosspoint.tv/

Today I posted on the 31 Day Challenge about the warning of adultery. If every man and woman took seriously the warning of today’s chapter (Proverbs 5), the image and experience of marriage [and perhaps all other relationships that flow out of it] would certainly look and be vastly different than they are today to all of our benefit.

In fact, not “paying attention” to the wisdom and “words of insight” written in this chapter arguably may have contributed to some of the most damaging consequences we face in our homes, families, and culture today.

Solomon has taken this entire chapter to emphasize that marriage and sexuality are so sacred and pure, that two people coming together and giving ALL of themselves to each other, is not to be messed or interfered with, so that it might last forever. In essence, adultery can never truly satisfy, because it can’t—it’s living outside of how God created us to live.

One verse that stood out to me was verse 15:

“Drink water from your own cistern,
running water from your own well.”

Poetic for sure, but also amazingly clear, isn’t it?

There is nothing so valuable as knowing when to keep quiet. But, when are those times? Here are two that I believe would be very beneficial to remember well: We ought to keep silent or at very least exercise restraint…

1. When we are angry
2. When we what to criticize  

I rediscovered something this week, along with 35 students and leaders on a home missions trip to Wheelwright Ky.; the human heart is where real freedom flows from. Freedom is not doing whatever we want when we want; it’s more about being true to who we are and who we were created to be.

Above all…you are called to be free; do not use your freedom for an openness to self-indulgence, but be servants to one another in love… [Galatians 5]

Real freedom [the kind that Christ invites us to] recognizes that self-indulgence has many limits and leads us to only being more enslaved by it; we eventually become slaves to our own needs and wants. But love, compassion, and giving ourselves more totally and freely to others leads us to a greater kind of freedom.

To be free is to put justice, truth, and service to others over and above our own need for recognition, power, personal gain, and success.

One Final Thought: the main teacher on the road to freedom is Jesus.

I am fascinated and attracted by His total freedom, which He insists is the way we all are created to live everyday. I think I really believe Him and want to follow!

It led to a brutally hot camping trip in the middle of last summer’s heat wave; not the experience we had envisioned while dreaming it up in our 70 degree conditioned air. Nonetheless, that camping adventure did produce an increased awareness of just how disconnected we truly are from even the simple miracle of a seed growing; our source often seemed more like Publix then it did our maker.

Desiring to close-the-gap and disconnection of God being the main source of our lives, over the winter months we purchased some Earth Boxes www.earthbox.com and began to anticipate the miracle of seed, time, and harvest. Here are some of our first fruits: Banana Hot Peppers. They are a daily reminder to us that God is indeed our source!

I’ve been thinking a lot about what the world would be like, and how we’d all be different, if everyone truly pursued the common good of one another.  I’m frustrated that that notion seems so idealistic and impossible. I’m disappointed that something so easy to be understood and applied, has become so fuzzy and unpracticed in our daily relationships and living–to everyone’s detriment.

 I wonder if our current condition as human beings–of falling so short, so often, from actually living for the common good of one another–disappoints God. I wonder if the cross isn’t God’s cosmic way of saying, “if you didn’t get the ‘common good thing’ yet, do you get it now?” For God, no sacrifice seems too great to ignore the common good of all.   

Is it possible, we’ve unintentionally overlooked a gigantic piece of what is so central to being human, because we see it as being overly simplistic for a much too complex world? 

With all of the timesaving devices we use today, shouldn’t we be better off to goof off more? To put it in perspective, during the middle ages, people–in addition to Sundays–had 115 days off a year. and you???

It’s no secret that U2 is my favorite band. Their music has always had a way of inspiring me at a deeper place; it’s more then just great music or entertainment. Bono, U2’s lead singer, translates lyrically for me how I want to see the world. With U2 there is always hope, transcendence, depth, and redemption.

Sometimes Christianity has been often more inclined to see the darkness in humanity rather then seek out the good. The belief that humanity has fallen so far from God’s original intent, often causes us to forget that humanity is made in the image of God.

Bono inspires me because he doesn’t seem to be distracted in this. He carefully and passionately looks for the good; I love that! Bono, had these words to say about Billy Graham [another on my list of most inspiring people], Bono says…

“At a time when religion seems so often to get in the way of God’s work–with its shopping mall sales pitch and its bumpersticker reductionism–I give thanks just for the sanity of Billy Graham, for that clear, empathetic voice…part poet, part preacher–a singer of the human spirit.”

Bono & Billy G, Singers of the Human Spirit. Make anyone else wanna’ sing? Me too!

• Greatness that only benefits themselves.
• Greatness that benefits others and the world around them.          

I read this morning in a William Barclay devotional, about the measure of truly great men and women. It really got me thinking, perhaps it will you too. Here were some of his thoughts on truly great people:

• always thoughtful
• never finds it safe to judge others by externals only
• shows grace in both giving and receiving
• does not think of his place or prestige
• only little people think of how great they are
• only unimportant people think of how important they are
• no task that helps someone else is ever below their dignity

We need humility. To think we could never be wrong is foolish.

We need to love truth at least as much as we love ourselves. Truth and my self-esteem sometimes differ.

We need to love growth more than we do stuntedness. To refuse to listen to criticism is never to move, never to advance, never to improve.

And finally–this is my personal favorite for when criticism is offered in the wrong spirit–We need to occasionally use the delete button! We all have one; both on our computers and in spirit.