Thoughts on Holiness and Ditches

Yesterday I was having lunch with a friend and holiness came up.  He remarked that, as you in your own walk of faith become "more" holy it is inevitable that you will see more sin in others. That struck something in me - not a good chord actually.  While I agree that there maybe some truth to this or at least this perception, the only position this leaves me in is that of judge over others pointing out their sin.

I am still wrestling with the "more" holy idea, at least in an elevated sense that I am high up in holiness than someone else or that someone else is higher than I.  Holiness I believe has much to do with a greater awareness of the flesh in operation and thus more often recognizing when I am operating in the fleshly desires of my soul and then repenting to a position of faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross for the totality of my righteousness.  More on that later in another post, possibly.

If there is any greater recognition of sin in the process of sanctification (becoming more holy) I have personally found that it is seeing the immensity of sin in my heart toward both God and my fellow man.  I find the depth of sin to be seemingly bottomless and without end.  Jeremiah speaks of the wickedness (utter depravity) of the heart. If you are willing to go there (into the darkness of your own heart) God (who is Light & Truth) will go there with you.  In this discovery of more sin - I also have found a more than equivalent amount of mercy and grace and forgiveness from Jesus for my sin.  To what degree I believe I can see more sin and recognize more sin I am always finding a reciprocal degree of grace and mercy.

So as I may see sin in others because I have understood my own sin to great depth, my response to others' sin is and must only be compassion and mercy not judgement. Mercy has been my portion and therefore mercy is my response.  When mercy is not my response I find more often than not I am operating and living out of the fleshly desires of my soul that cry out out for acceptance, admiration, elevated status and arrogance which is a most unholy position.

I remember once a friend that was a construction worker.  His crew was working in a ditch and a valve inadvertently was broke or damaged and the ditch began to fill up with water.  The crew was doing everything but but stopping the water coming into the ditch.  By the time my friend, the foreman, came upon the scene the ditch was waist-full of water.  A few explicatives later, he jumped right into the ditch with his crew and plug the pipe.  He did not simply yell from the high position you guys are wet and you shouldn't be.  He got wet with them and was able to recognize the problem and address it.

Recognizing more sin I believe can actually position us to dive into the ditch and get messy but cause the real problem to be seen in another one's life and bring them to the real solution - the mercy of the CROSS. The reality is that this picture defines incarnation - Jesus becoming flesh and blood.  He got into our ditch of fallen humanity so that He bring us to see real truth, Himself, and solve our real problem of a wicked heart.

Mercy incarnate maybe the response of holiness.

Fingerprints - which ones matter?

I enjoy the TV show CSI (Crime Scene Investigation). Many times the work of the CSIs is to lift every piece of evidence including the fingerprints. Most finger prints are simply taken and dismissed but there is usually one that starts connecting the dots for the mystery or crime to be solved.
The fingerprints that mattered.
Much of our days are honestly lived disconnected. We go here for this errand, we meet this person, we work with people we don't really know, we hope tomorrow will be different than today. Then we do it all over again. Living like this is not bad it is kind of just how it is. The problems come when we start drawing conclusions about life and our existence based on this perceived disconnected monotony.
When the crimes are being solved on CSI there is always the apparent perpetrator based on the surface review of the scene; however, the deeper the investigators go the true perpetrator is revealed.
So, my thought is this: Whose fingerprints really matter? The true perpetrator's.
I am beginning to see that the disconnected events of my day are not so disconnected. If I begin to look more closely and more intently and more reflectively on my day I am finding God's fingerprints. As see God's finger print in one aspect of the day I soon recognize His fingerprint on another place in the day. God's fingerprints connect the dots of His redemptively work in my life throughout the events of my day.
Reflecting on the day or yesterday I begin to see how God was guiding but because of my distraction and the seeming disconnectedness of the day I missed it.
Be a lifter of fingerprints especially God's - life starts to make sense.
The True Purposer.
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