Thread by @roseelliottwrts, People need patience, love, and safe spaces to be who they are, [...]

People need patience, love, and safe spaces to be who they are, grow, and change as needed.

But there are also behaviors and beliefs that cannot be tolerated.

There can be both. I think each requires the other. God is patient with us, but he does not tolerate our sin.

We need the hard blow of the weight of our sin but we also need the patience, love, and kindness of God to put off that sin.

We need to hear the thoughts and ideas of others without creating assumptions about what they're not saying.

I'm very hesitant to use the word "wrong."

Not because I don't think there's right and wrong (there definitely is right and wrong), but because we often use "wrong" when we want to say "I don't see it that way" or "I disagree." But then the word "wrong" is in our heads.

So then the people who see things differently...

...become the enemy, because they are "wrong." And we are right.

But that seems a little arrogant, no?

I'm not saying objective right and wrong don't exist, I'm saying they may be more nuanced than we think.

The Bible speaks to what is and is not sin. But even through my almost twenty years as a believer, I have learned that things I once believed the Bible said were sin actually aren't.

Take alcohol for instance. Or even swearing. These things can be used excessively and sinfully.

But having a drink or dropping an f bomb (when appropriate) are not in and of themselves sins. But I know many who would claim the Scripture is clear that they are.

I have spent a lot of this past year of my life watching people divide themselves on lines I don't think...

...we were ever meant to draw. It can be hard when, during a global pandemic or a contentious election, we see people doing, saying, or being things we would never do. & many of those behaviors from people have absolutely been wrong. They warrant being called out & warned against

I have done this too.

One of my best friends voted for Tr*mp. I had a really, really hard time with that for a while. I did not understand. I disagree with her choice. I don't see it the way she did. But because we talk almost every day, I know she is also angered by his...

...behavior, how he handled losing, and everything that has happened since. She does not condone the violence he has committed. But she had concerns about other candidates that she simply could not reconcile in her heart.

If anyone comes for her for making an impossible choice,

I will come for you. Because people are not one dimensional. We are nuanced. Our hearts are complex. We are all in different stages of life and growth.

God is patient with each of us when we hold beliefs that are not consistent with loving God and loving others.

And so we must also be patient with others. When we think their beliefs are sin (and we must step back and ask, is this sin or do I just see it differently?), when we wish they would see it the way we saw it, when we think they're making fear-centered choices over...

God-centered choices.

Jesus always went back to love. Paul always went back to love. God always goes back to love. A Jesus-centered view of love is patient and kind, but it is also sharp with the abusive and protective of the hurting. Love is complex. It is nuanced.

I'm not claiming to have all of this figured out. I have spent far too much time feeling incensed and labeling people who are not the enemy as the enemy. I have often been defensive, putting people in the "wrong" box just because they don't (or won't) understand me.

I struggle daily with anger towards people whose choices I disagree with or people who don't see things the way I do. But I have to remember that just as God has been patient with me my whole life, so also must I be patient with other people. I can speak into their lives, share..

...my heart, ask to be heard, and let them be heard.

I'm doing my best to love God and love others in a way that reflects the way Jesus loves us.

Again, I don't claim to be right all the time or have all the answers. This is mostly just a ramble that got away from me.

But I guess my point in all this is that we could all use a little more love, patience, and kindness poured out of us and into us.

I think that's all. If you got this far, thanks for reading. /end

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