I felt my trigger finger itching to shoot. I knew I could throw up a quick smart sounding post on social media to sound off just like everyone else in the world. I wanted someone to hear my two cents because that’s the only way we can make a difference in our society, or so I mistakenly believed at the time. I just felt so angry, so offended at the state of our great nation and the constant barrage of hate soup that seems to be spoon fed to us every single day. Crime in the streets, crime in our schools, crime in our homes, shootings in churches, NFL players refusing to stand during the national anthem, and dressed up hate in every crevice possible in our nation and world. It seems to be EVERYWHERE I look: anger, frustration, distrust, bitterness, hatred, etc. We don’t need another nation to destroy us; we are doing a great job of it ourselves, which is exactly what our enemy wants.
I don’t just mean terrorists that have pledged to destroy us. That’s obviously a given. I mean Satan, or “The Accuser” as the Bible has referred to him in several passages. We keep taking his bait too, over and over. John Bevere wrote a very insightful book, The Bait of Satan, in which he uncovers the trap of Satan as being offense. He writes that Satan’s plan is to bait you to become offended with people so that you’ll stay stuck or worse, self destruct. And so many of us are falling for it right now, just like a mouse falls for the cheese in the trap. He might get the cheese but he will die in the process. Translation: We might get what we thought we wanted (recognition, equality, power, justice etc) but we could die in the process. That death may be more about losing ourselves and less about getting what we want. We lose the good parts of us in order to make our voice louder and stronger. Kindness gives way to cruelty in an effort to achieve a goal. Humility disappears and pride takes control. Things get ugly really quick when we stop walking in the spirit and start walking in our flesh.
I’m in no way saying that some things don’t need to change and I know there is injustice in the world. But violence is never going to bring about a peaceful resolution and the change we hope for. Violence brings about MORE violence. Please stay within the context of what I’m trying to say here, I’m not talking about wars between nations, I’m talking about Americans living and co-existing together. We are all so offended with each other that we are in a constant state of heightened frustration, waiting for someone to say or do something so we can strike with all of the pent up anger that we’ve been holding in for so long.
What’s the solution? As Christians, we need to get our eyes back on Jesus. He’s the only one with the answers, the power, and the hope. We make a mess of things when we try to take over and fix things the way we see fit. Offense is a distraction; it keeps us from seeing each other as equals and children of God. When we walk in offense we de-humanize one another so that we can easily move into our unethical treatment of each other. But when we find ourselves as the foot of the cross and we behold Jesus we remember how broken and messed up we are without Him. It levels the playing field and we remember that NONE of us are superior! We know we don’t deserve His grace, mercy and forgiveness and we have no right to trespass against those benefits by walking in offense and refusing to forgive each other.
Offense has a monstrous price tag: our soul. Are we willing to lose our entire soul just to make a statement about a political view point or a facebook post we disagree with? I am not saying that there aren’t times that a stand must be taken, but before we draw the line in the sand and denounce our entire friends list, we should make sure we know what it is are standing up for and what it might cost us. And as a Christian, we need to turn our eyes to Jesus and make sure it’s a stand He agrees with. Because if it isn’t we are just adding fuel to an already out of control fire.
Remember Satan wants us offended, outraged, and out of control so that it will discredit God in some way. It’s easier to discredit an over the edge Christian that’s angry and bitter than it is to discredit a mature believer that lives what they believe through their everyday life and exercises self-control.
The world is looking to us for an example of how to deal with tension in our country. We need to step up and handle it in a Godly way, showing grace, mercy and understanding for one another. We push back the darkness with the light of God’s love, not by our own efforts and strength.
I pray that we all turn our eyes on Jesus and look full in His face and stop being willing participants in the divisiveness that is gripping us all.
