Dear Everybody,
How are you? I am fine.
Anyway, Everybody, I’m writing you, to let you know I’ve reached a verdict. Everybody, I've been watching you, and I’ve seen what you’ve done, including, but not limited to: Voting for the wrong people, believing things I don’t, doing things I don’t approve of, and just generally being stupid. And acting like selfish jerks. And that time one of you cheated in Scholastic Bowl and totally cost me the game.
I totally saw you do that, Everybody.
I came to a verdict, it's this: I'm not actually allowed to reach a verdict. That's right. You’re off the hook. Off mine, anyway. So congrats.
Turns out, upon review – and I didn’t want to admit this, but: I don’t REALLY know what motivated you to do that stuff. I hate that, because I wanted to be angry about it. It made me feel better about me when I thought I DID know everyone’s deepest motivations. But then I read in the Bible where Paul writes that no one knows someone else’s heart, and, he says, he doesn’t even know his OWN heart, so he has to let God sort it out in the end, he says.
Rats. I liked knowing exactly where you bad people stood with God.
I liked pretending I knew who the “good Christians” are, too, like this athlete or that musician or this celebrity. Turns out, I don’t even know that. Makes sense to admit it, now that I remember all the people who seemed so good, so wonderful…who managed to fool even their spouses for decades.
Bummer. I liked pretending I knew. Maybe it helped me to think, “That guy has his moral act together, so it’s possible we can do this religion thing, too!” But I think that's because I was really a moralist, and wanted to believe I could be "clean", too, somehow, based on what I do.
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So, Everybody, you’re off the hook. I don’t know your heart, and don’t expect you to be more than you are, which is a broken person, in need of Jesus. From now on, when I meet you, Everybody, I’ll just assume that’s the case. I do know this: You need more Jesus. And so do I.
Everybody, I think I had you on trial, but it’s over. This particular judge has been ruled incompetent for trial.
The good news, for me: This is going to save me some serious time and energy. I can do other stuff, like just take a walk, or maybe laugh more about dumb stuff with my kids.
Or maybe even with you, sometime.
God bless you, Everybody,
Brant