Thirsty...

In session six of Philip Yancey’s DVD study on ‘What’s So Amazing About Grace’ he says,

“When I come across a person I truly disagree with, I pray this prayer: ‘Lord, help me not to see, “What a repulsive person. What an immoral person.” Rather, help me to see, “What a thirsty person.”

I think that’s some good advice. So many people get themselves into such crazy messes due to their “thirsts.” Perhaps it’s a thirst for acceptance, or a thirst for a feeling of fulfillment, or a thirst for truth, or a thirst for… life itself. It’s easy for ALL OF US to get caught up in our thirsts… and it can lead to some pretty dire circumstances.

What people need when this happens is a big dose of G-R-A-C-E. We need to learn to see people not as defined by their ‘circumstance’ or the ‘label’ we have placed on them, but simply as a… “thirsty” person; a “seeker” if-you-will.

Personally, I have to confess to having trouble accepting fundamentalist-type Christians. I am really turned off by know-it-all attitudes. And it’s hard for me to accept them. The usual way I deal with people like this is to just ignore them; to not associate with them. I have come to think this is not a good thing. I need to seek God’s grace in helping me see them differently. It is not that THEY are the problem, it is that “I” have a problem accepting them; loving them; seeing them as a child of God.

Help me, Lord, to see people the way You see them. Help me be able to extend grace to others; and to do so without thinking I am ‘better’ than them. I pray that others would be able to extend the same grace to me – that You might be glorified, and that the way of Jesus might quench the thirst of the world.

Peace, friends. Yep… a revolution is at hand.