Alrighty then, to follow up on last week’s post, who is ready to find out what your blind spots and double standards are?
No one?
That has been my experience, yet I am ever ready to let others know what their blind spots and double standards are. Thus, another double standard is evident.
Is there a way forward?
Think back to how the panic of self-preservation makes us blind and deaf to the needs or well-being of anyone else. Such panic also makes us self-righteous: How could we be wrong to think and say and do what we think will help us live when we are in a panic? (Even if what we think, say, and do is hurtful, unkind, uncaring, and even unloving toward other people?) Thus reasons a desperate, vulnerable human nature. Have you noticed that people who are hyper-critical are also hyper-sensitive? Have you noticed that people who insist on boundaries for others have no concern for the boundaries of others? Does a sea of drowning people look something like the people in our world today?
So, what to do?
First, we rescue the drowning person, then we have the conversation. Psalm 130 says, “… but there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.” Both Old Testament and New Testament begin with the good message that God has always known our condition. Therefore, He has surrounded us with grace, like the world’s atmosphere, which we depend on. God’s grace precedes us, upholds us, and awaits us throughout our life. Our guilt has been and remains forgiven. God’s Word and Spirit regenerate and inspire our soul to live in the image of Christ. If we remain in God’s Word, we will know the truth, and the truth will make us free (John 8:31-32).
History proves the destructiveness of selfishness. Jesus proved the power of self-sacrifice for the life and well-being of others. Jesus lived in absolute consciousness that His life was safe with God the Father. Jesus did the Father’s will by substituting His life for all of humanity and the Father raised Him from the dead. Jesus spent all of His life giving life back to people, teaching us how that works, proving that it works by healing the sick, feeding the hungry, raising the dead, and absolving those burdened with guilt. Jesus regenerates our soul in His own image. Such a regenerate soul also has an absolute consciousness that our life is safe with the Author and Redeemer of our life. His Word and sacraments are constant, inexhaustible witnesses to the invulnerability of our life. We begin to know the life God is giving us as we give ourselves for the sake of others. Now we want to know what our blind spots and double standards are so we can be free of them and so more freely and joyfully love others, even as we are loved by God.