I was reminded today of things I had hoped were long behind me. The "punched in the gut" feeling you get when sanctmonious prigs deflate the dreams of a fellow human being without even trying to get at the real issues. The hurt that accompanies you as you watch a young person being systematically cut down by those in positions of power who are too busy or too self centered to think of the path of destruction they leave in their self-righteous zeal to prove their wisdom is higher than all others. I suppose we are fortunate in this world to have among us those who can see things we cannot. People who can look at a half page of writing and judge the condition of the author's heart. People who can take just a few clues and piece them together and tell you more about yourself than even you knew. These are people who couch their blows in terms designed to cause pain, but say their words in ways that make it hard to fight back. Kind of like the people who think if you say "bless their heart" before or after they can cut another down. They hide behind a veneer of righteousness and use the language of the Gospel to hide their phariseacal hearts. Today I came face-to-face with these people again. Only this time I was only watching. Reminded me of the days I spent at Barclay College. It's harder to watch it happen to another than it ever was to bear up under it. I re-read the book of Jude and John's first Epistle and was reminded that these people have been around a lot longer than I. People who praise God with their lips while their hearts are far away, people who preach the Gospel out of selfish motives while patting themselves on the back for their "devotion" and willingness to "suffer" for the Gospel in jobs they really see as beneath them. PEOPLE!! LOOK AROUND!!! Can you really not see the pain you cause? Are your hearts so hardened that you no longer care? Is your self righteoussness and your need to be seen as never wrong so important that it is worth sacrificing a young mans heart? Shame. You feel no shame. I cry for you no longer. Now my prayers go to your victims; those you have cast aside as being unworthy of your hallowed ground. May God's comfort ABOUND to them, may His prescence build them up and make them stronger even as it did for me when you tried to knock me down. May God's grace ABOUND in their lives as they minister in the world you fled, to those whom you give only lip service to. My heart is broken by you, but repaired to beat even stronger by the One Who Makes All Things New. More later. . . | 
