Keeping My Mouth Shut

I've always had a hard time keeping my mouth shut.

And I've always really admired people who could do it, and who were merciful, since they possess qualities that I'm afraid I'll never quite master. Apparently, people don't like to be told they're full of crap.

Who knew?

However, some of those "merciful" people need a backbone. And I am happy to step in and be that for them until they finally grow one of their own. When I see people I care about being treated badly, or worse, allowing other people to treat them badly, something snaps in my head. I want them to know it's not okay to be treated badly. It's okay to call sin sin. Argh! Suddenly, I get the urge to listen to Eminem.

But I digress.

It's a delicate balance though, isn't it? Can you "love" someone to death? When is it just casting your pearls before swine? This is hard. All those Bible verse about being merciful and forgiving run through my mind. However, "forgiveness" is not a synonym for "stupid". I think we can enable the other person to continue to destroy themselves if we don't allow them to experience the consequences of their behavior. Our mercy is actually a cruelty of the worse kind.

I need wisdom. I don't want to quit before it's time. But I know I'll never give up, since I'm not depending on the other person to turn the situation around, but God, for which all things are possible. Today I thought that maybe God is allowing them to go so low, so low, that when He steps in redemption will be so amazing, so sweet, so winsome, that it will blow us all away. It will be a megaphone to shout His glory. I could use that kind of encouragement. It seems so impossible sometimes, but I don't think it's over. I think God has plans far better than I do, or can even imagine. So I'm trusting His goodness (so easy to forget when life gets overwhelming!), and believing that the best is yet to be.

I've always had a hard time keeping my mouth shut, but Lord willing, more often than not it was, and will be, because I was standing up for Something.