Free Will

We visited my family over the weekend and I am sorry to say that someone that is near and dear to my heart is far from God.  She mentioned something over the weekend and oh, how I wish I was better at responding.  Sometimes it takes me so off-guard, I can come up with nothing.  In this instance she was talking about her neighbor. 

She has a new neighbor.  But before you envision a house 10-20 feet from her own, you should know that she lives on 80 acres.  This new neighbor is interested in hunting wild turkeys on her property.  She does allow one person to hunt turkeys on her property when it is turkey hunting season but she didn't want to have others hunting as well.  So she told the neighbor no. 

Unfortunately, this is a neighbor that has mentioned to her that he reads his bible every morning before he heads off on his long commute to work.  His actions after being told that he couldn't hunt on her property were not very biblical.  He watched for the person that does have permission to arrive, then he stood as close to her property line as he could and started up his chain saw and his weed whacker.  That may sound perfectly reasonable except for the fact that it was still completely dark outside at this time in the morning.  He was trying to prevent the person with permission from having any luck hunting by scaring all the turkeys away. 

Because of his actions and because he had mentioned to her that he reads his bible, she takes this as another strike against Christianity.  This is where the difficulty lies.  She is holding her neighbor to an impossible standard because he is a Christian.  She feels he shouldn't act improperly, he should always be able to maintain an even temper, he should be able to act like Jesus because he is a Christian. 

Nowhere in the bible does it say that once we ask Christ into our lives, we will be perfect.  We are human.  God gave us free will, the freedom to choose.  And often times we still choose the wrong thing, even with a relationship with Christ. 

What I pray I can relate to her at some point is that being a Christian does not mean being perfect.  It means that we need to try to have a right relationship with God.  It means working at our own relationship with Jesus Christ.  And it means not judging others when they get it wrong. 

We should not be concerned with how others are following God's law.  We should be concerned with how we are doing ourselves.  Often times that means we must confess our own sin to God, repent of it and ask His forgiveness.  It also means we must forgive others when they sin against us, whether they ask for our forgiveness or not.

In His Grace...