Our Porcine Pals (Pigs)

Sometimes, when I'm trying to focus on the words that should fill this space, my mind races; and I remind myself of that girl from The Cosby Show... Vanessa's friend... The one who talked a mile a minute... The one who always left Cliff shaking his head and saying, "I just listen for my name."... Yeah her... I remind me of her. :D

However, when I let God work, the racket is stilled; and the product is at least coherent.

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First, a note about my last post... I would be embarrassed to tell you how long it took to type that thing. :D I had a couple of other thoughts that ran in a similar vein. But for fear of being too long-winded, I found a decent stopping point, and I cut the thread...

I will not do that again.

Having those unfinished-but-not-quite-random thoughts bouncing around in my cranium almost drove me batty!

Monday, I said:

It is not our place to look down on those whose sins we can discern. Ridicule is not our right. Those actions would be judgemental, and would fall under the warning in Matthew 7:1.

Not only is that sort of judging unfair, it makes us look ridiculous...

Imagine two pigs. They share the same sty, wallow in the same mud, eat the same slop. On morning, after a particularly satisfying wallow, both pigs stand up and give a good snout-to-curlicued-tail shake--just cuz it feels sooo good :). Shaking done, they observe each other. Both are still dirty; the filth has merely shifted a bit. One has more mud on his back left leg than on his right front leg. For the second swine, the reverse is true. One pig can't find his tail for all the mud, while the other has mud on his head that's about to start dripping into his eyes. It's easy for one pig to see the other pig's dirt... Would it make sense for one to taunt the other about being dirty?

That would be silly. Mud is mud. Head mud is not somehow "cleaner" than foot mud. Yet, when we are judgemental--not discerning, but Matthew 7:1 judgmental--we are taunting the other pigs about being dirty. We all struggle with the mud of our sins. We struggle in different areas, but we all struggle.

I am so grateful that,through The Cross of Christ, we don't have to wallow. By the power of The Holy Spirit, we can overcome our piggy natures; and as we grow, we come to relish the mud less and less. (Romans 7:24--8:2)

Calling sin by its proper name simply means that we are not calling mud (and the droppings that it masks) clean. And we must be honest, lest we begin to believe our own lies and start rolling in old mud again.

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This next thought was hard to wrap my mind aroud, because--well, quite frankly--it seems hugely unfair. God does not rank sin. Oh, how we wish He would! We desperately want Him to rank the mud. Sure, I'm muddy; but I'm not as muddy as he is...

I neglect my kids, but I'm no child molester... I enjoy waching porn, but I'd never cheat on my spouse... I kept change I was not owed, but I'm no bank robber.

These kinds of comparisons comfort us, but God does not make those kinds of distinctions. If we break even the smallest portion of His Law we have broken all of it (James 2:10). If I steal a postage stamp, I am no less guilty than the murderer, who took 13 lives before he got caught.

What makes that hard truth easier to swallow? Mercy. All sin is equally bad, but all sin is also equally covered by The Blood of Jesus (1 John 1:9, Hebrews 8:12, Psalm 103:12).

For some reason, that equality sometimes rankles us. Just as we don't want our sins to be equal, we don't want His forgiveness to be equal.

The forgiven bank robber should not be on the same footing as I am. I never robbed a bank!

Why do we do that? His covering the sins of the child molester, the killer, and the bank robber does not uncover my sins or cancel my forgiveness. The same mercy is offered to all, but forgivenss and healing are individualized and personal. It's that personal care that creates our unique testimonies.

Thank you Jesus, for Your personal care (Luke 12:6--7)!!

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In keeping with our Piggy theme, here's an aaaww moment, from my old email...

A Pig-Pup

photos by Coletta Johnson

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One last swine inspired smile:

Our Very Own Pig-Pup

We had a pet pig named Henrietta, when I was eleven. When she was a baby, she slept in the wood box next to our wood-burning stove; and we fed her with a baby bottle. Being raised with several dogs, Henrietta believed she was a dog. She barked. I kid you not; that pig barked like a dog, and I am not the only witness! :-) She even learned to fetch!!... But the icing on the cake came the day that a concerned neighbor knocked on our door, to alert Mom to the fact that our pig was chasing cars!