Growth

Recent events at our church and a great post from I Could Be Serious really made me start examining my own life.

I would say one of my biggest struggles in my younger years was judgmentalism. I looked down on people whose struggles were foreign to me. I remember being horrified by the sins of friends who "partied" or slept with their boyfriends. These weren't my struggles...I knew the Word of God and knew why these things were wrong.

As I hit college, I found myself dealing with sin...that though not as extreme as my friends'...revealed to me how sin entangles. When you get in, you often get stuck. When you are stuck, you can't see the way out or if you do, you fail to exit the situation. You get isolated, and you don't want any of your Christian friends to know. Gotta keep looking good. Can't let people know I'm stuck. The slough of despond...

I can't say I'm not tempted to judge people anymore, but God has moved in my life in ways that birthed in me compassion. When I see people fail, I know that we are all capable of failure. I work hard to keep my Pharisee costume locked up. Over the years, it has actually become easier to feel compassion and caring for fallen people including me. That is growth...and I give Jesus all credit for it!