Empathy

I was building a radio station over at Pandora today and yesterday, and I came across a song I hadn't heard in awhile. I found the music video, and I felt like it spoke volumes about how Christians should relate to the world, though it is a secular song. I don't think this should matter, but in case your virgin ears might be offended, the singer uses the f-word.

The song is What It's Like by Everlast, and you can find the lyrics here.



Christians spend way too much time judging people. With all that time analyzing everyone else, you would think we would try to understand people a little better, but that's usually not the case. I think that if we took more time to understand the circumstances in people's lives, we might realize that if we had gone through what they had, and didn't have the benefits and blessings that we do, we might act they same way.

That doesn't make sin okay, but maybe that would help us be a little more graceful and loving towards people we see as 'sinners.' Although really, we are all sinners, and are all equally disgusting towards God.

"All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away." Isaiah 64:6

Also, if we would take the time to understand how people get into sin and self destructive patterns, we might be a lot better at helping them get out of that behavior. I was talking to a Christian friend of mine, and I told him I was teaching a class on teen sexuality. I was specifically talking about the reasons that teens have sex.

He told me that the problem is the same as it always was, teens have a 'stubborn heart and want to sin.' While i would agree that may be true on some level, it's not nearly close to the whole truth. I told him that I thought that if he were exposed to the same pressures and problems that many teens are, and weren't taught the Bible in a loving, stable Christian family, he would probably have had sex in high school too.

I hear a lot about calling sin what it is: evil, and I'm all for that. But I don't hear much about calling sinners what they are, the beloved of God.