Their Sin Is Worse

I felt bad that day. I hesitated, so the light turned green before I could hand him a few quarters. I don't know his name, but he has one. I don't know his story, but someone does. He was alone on that corner, but some where there's someone who misses him - I hope. Actually, I know that there is at least One that misses him. There's a King that misses this homeless man who is nameless to me. I once was a wanderer, and that same King missed me. I dare not forget that.


It's too easy to pass people on the streets and think we have the power or the right to categorize sin; our sin versus their sin. It almost seems natural to think that another's sin is somehow more repulsive than our own. Oh, the lies they tell. The sex they have. The stuff they drink. Oh, the things they've done. How dare I ever allow someone else's sin make me feel better about my own filth. Yes, MY filth. 


When it comes to how repulsive sin is to the Father - I am no different than the adulterer or the thief. When it comes to the Father's love - the man on the corner and the woman in the strip club are no different than I. The same hands that knit me together in my mom's womb are the same hands that made those "other sinners." It's a shame to think that my skin or my spirit is better than anyone else's. 


The phrase, "You are fearfully and wonderfully made" is so often used and yet so often dismissed. We act as if those words lose their meaning or their truth at those moments we allow our pride to blind us. It's easy to forget that our pride can be just as destructive and is just as repulsive as those other unspeakable sins. 


What is it that makes us create our own system of superiority? Can we actually forget that Jesus died on the cross for sinners like us? Do we think that their is no hope left for those people we pass by - that they are too far gone? Today, I want to remember not only Jesus on the cross but the man hanging next to him on his own cross. A sinner made right with Jesus right before his death. 


.Psalm 145:13-19


We may not be able to always have one on one time with these people, but we can purpose to replace our prideful thoughts towards them with prayers for them to find their way home - in Him.