A Guilty Plea that Results in an Innocent Sentence

I don’t care to admit this, but I am usually the one who needs to ask for forgiveness. In this case however, I for once was on the other side as the offended party. You see, about a month ago, I found that someone who a few weeks prior had asked for my help in paying for their bills, was stealing money from me and using the money they stole from me to pretend to pay me back. Forgiveness was hard, but walking around with their theft constantly on my mind was exhausting. It was as Jeff described, "like walking around with a rock in your pocket." I needed to resolve the situation and offer forgiveness. I presented them with my evidence against them. They admitted their theft and accepted my forgiveness. The rock was gone.

Then, three weeks ago, I again noticed something missing. A few things actually. This time it wasn’t money, but things had been taken from me. I made an itemized list of all the things I knew were missing and began investigating where they could have gone. I knew I hadn't just misplaced them. I had an idea of what happened to these things and it made me sick. At first I didn't want to believe that this same person would steal from me again, especially not steal this much.

I found that the same person who had stolen from me a few weeks prior, had stolen from me again. They had stolen my things, sold them, and pocketed the cash. Even before I had evidence against them, I knew they were guilty of this theft, and I had to go for two weeks with this “rock” in my pocket as I investigated.

Last Wednesday I had enough evidence to convict them, then on Thursday we were assigned the "Rock and Rose" project. Weird how His timing works out huh?

After weeks of prayer, on Sunday this last week, I was ready to get rid of this rock that had been digging into my skin all month. I wasn’t going to demand they replace the items or pay me back. I was furious and after this second theft, I really just wanted to grab them by the collar and pin them to the wall, but I figured God wanted me to act more like Christ than like Al Capone. So on Monday, I gathered my evidence and made a plan to confront them with what they had done so that I could offer forgiveness and pray with them.

On Monday, I found them eating lunch and laid in front of them the itemized list of stolen goods. Before I could even begin my prosecution. They slammed their fists on the table, stood up from where they were sitting, and angrily said, “I didn’t F****** steal anything from you!” I wanted to remind them of the money they stole the month before, but instead I just presented my evidence for the current theft. They got angrier and angrier by the second. Then they got in my face and began swearing at me.

At this point, forgiveness had gone out the window in my mind. Instead, I secretly hoped they would hit me so that I could take the situation "Into my own hands." It's probably a good thing that didn’t happen...Instead, they just stormed off—still swearing at me. I knew confronting them and offering forgiveness would be difficult, but that wasn't the result I expected. I expected to be done with that annoying rock, and just as I was about to be done with that rock that had been digging into my leg for the past three weeks, they shoved it back into my pocket.   

After weeks of working towards a place of forgiveness, there I was back where I started, at a place of anger and resentment. As Paul said in Romans 12:18, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” But now for me it wasn’t possible as far as it depended on me. I had approached them, ready to forgive, ready to make amends, but they refused to admit their wrongdoing. How can there be forgiveness when the person wont own up to their sin in the first place?

There can’t be. Forgiveness is an offering that must be accepted, but in order to be accepted it first requires a prerequisite of a guilty plea; a confession. 

Yesterday in class, Jeff handed everyone in the class copies of 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins, and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

That is a conditional statement: "If we confess our sins.” Before we can be forgiven, before we can have a savior, we must admit our wrongdoing and our need for a savior. If we don’t confess our sins, if we deny our wrongdoing, then in doing so we look at Jesus on the cross and say, “That’s not for me.” And we miss out on the forgiveness that is offered to us.

The beautiful reality is that because of Christ’s offer of forgiveness, when we humble ourselves enough to face the Judge and to plead guilty, we convict ourselves of an innocent sentence. It is after we accept the charges against us that we may look upon the Cross and say, “May this be for me?”

 

My situation is still unresolved and it still feels like I still have that annoying rock in my pocket. The situation feels like it has gone out of my control. My only option now is to defer it to the Lord and to trust in "him who judges justly.” – 1 Peter 2:23

Bridge on the River Kenosis: From Officers Who Won't Work to Servants Who Will

I was challenged by my professor to write a blog post, reflecting on a personal experience with “kenosis” or a time from the last week that, “God allowed you to empty yourself and reveal more of Him to someone in your world.”

This whole idea of a Kenosis Experience comes from Philippians chapter two. In Philippians 2:7 it states, “Instead, he [Jesus] gave up his divine privileges he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being,” the phrase “gave up his divine privileges” in the Greek is the word Kenosis which means he emptied himself. This was a voluntary act of Jesus. We find that what he emptied himself of in order to become man, was his glory. As it is stated in John 17:5, “Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.” What Jesus was asking that the father restore to him was his position, his recognition and his status. (Barnes)

At work, there is often the temptation to view certain tasks as being below myself. These menial tasks usually include handling a customer that could be a bit of an annoyance, or cleaning up a mess that could take significant time, or even something like fulfilling a simple request for help made by a coworker. When presented with tasks such as these, it’s a temptation for me to say, I can’t be bothered trivial things like this, I’m a manager! and instead defer it to one of my associates. Every day there is an example of this by another manager and it frustrates me to see. 

This attitude that my fellow managers and I can take on in these cases is reminiscent of Colonial Nicholson, in the classic movie The Bridge on the River Kwai. In it, Sir Alec Guinness’ character, Colonial Nicholson, famously refuses to neither allow his officers to partake in the bridge building, nor do any sort of manual labor himself because of their status as officers. It is a recurring instance in the movie where Nicholson refuses the order given by the Japanese commander, Colonial Saito, and says, “Officers won’t work!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXdycEK_38Y 

We can often fall into having this type of mindset when it comes to our service of God. Because of our pride we view certain ministerial tasks as being below us. We see them as being the kind of manual labor that we “officers” simply should not partake in. Because to partake in labor of that sort would be a failure to recognize our “status” and our “position.” It would be humiliating to our egos. Having this mindset often leads us to avoid pouring ourselves out into the river, and instead step over the kenotic opportunity effectively building a bridge over the river Kenosis.

What we as Christians need to discover is that in order for us to be effective servants, in order for us to let God make the most use of our lives, we must have the attitude of Christ and we must experience this “kenosis.” We must empty ourselves of our own glory and recognition, empty ourselves of who we think we are, our titles, our status, our position, the praise and acclamation that we receive from men, our selfishness, our egos, our self-centeredness, our pride. We must empty ourselves and take up the position, not of an officer who won't work, but of the servant, who is filled and led by the Holy Spirit and will.

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