stop being nice!?
uhm I used to think that niceness was the goal, but i'm not so sure anymore
I once heard when we change everything around us change too our environment becomes like we're strolling in Neverland I heard once when we change we become different but then our environment is still the same that yesterday and today were more alike than different somewhere in between what you see or what has become different maybe the way you dance through life is what really changed because maybe just maybe the music was always there maybe the alto soprano tenor were always there but you just didn't know how to listen for their presence maybe the bass guitar was always there in the background harmonizing the vibrations when I take a step back and listen to this Orchestra once again I wonder does God really care much for nice men isn't being nice more like rules than real transformation the lies that they echo legalism is the answer and not His person He came and died to make old men new men turns out nice men are just at best a caricature of His mission the holes in His hands have spoken to me I'm not afraid to be deeply hurt and still love anyway I'm not afraid to believe in redemption when another's wound becomes a weapon because in the end He counted the cost to make old men new men He knew Judas would betray Him but He loved anyway He knew the crowd following would celebrate Him on Palm Sunday and crucify Him on Good Friday yet He loved anyway He counted the cost in the garden with blood for sweat as He carried the burden just to make old men new men but sometimes we count the cost and instead of loving we walk away but He counted the cost and loved anyway that type of love my temples can pick up on its fine vibration may this type of love birth out of me a new man I will stand up and always love anyway.
Heart Call:
Last year I was reading Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, and one of the things he talked about was nice people versus new men. Sometimes we think Christianity is about God making people nice, but the picture is much bigger than that. It’s about transformation. And that anyone can be nice by personality, but new men forgive, love… in ways personality can’t explain.
And as we celebrate Holy Week and get close to Good Friday and Easter, I keep thinking about this: Jesus came to make new people.
When you look at the cross, you see what love looks like. He knew He would suffer, He knew He would be rejected, and He still loved anyway. And this kind of transformation says, even if you wound me, I will not become a wound. I will stand up and love you anyway.
Because niceness says, “I’ll be nice if you are nice to me.”
But loving like Christ means that even if you’re rude to me, even if you hurt me… I will not become a wound because of what you said, what you did, or what spoke over me. I will stand up and love you anyway.
And that’s the difference I keep learning my friends on being nice and being new.
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. — (Romans 12:17-18)
Do you find yourself reacting quickly, or are you trying to respond like Christ?
Where in your life right now is God inviting you not just to be nice, but to become new and love anyway?
Photo Credits: Stephen Tettey Atsu.