Frustrated…

Alright. The title expresses my perspective entering the fray on this debacle of a confirmation process. In fact, I have pushed back from wading in because as soon as you say something, someone is offended. No matter what position you take. So, I was going to just drive on by and voice my frustration from the comfort of my recliner in front of my own television, in my own home, in the hearing of my own wife. Then…it happened. I started reading comments from some of my Christian friends…and my jaw dropped. I am shocked. Embarrassed. Frustrated.

So, in light of that, I think you ought to know a couple of things…otherwise, you may go on saying things that display ignorance, tarnish the name of our Savior, and become a stumbling block to the cause of Christ.

Who am I speaking to? I will leave it to your conscience and the Holy Spirit to apply this individually. Here, though, is who I am not speaking to: OUTSIDERS. If you are not a follower of Christ, please scroll on by as I speak to the people of God. I am sorry you stopped to read this much and I am not aiming any of this to you for consideration since you cannot draw on the source of wisdom I am pointing to as our AUTHORITY.

To my Christian friends, it seems to me that these ten things are true and if you disagree, you can do so privately with me, or on this forum. I opened the door.

1. If you are “absolutely certain” of who is telling the truth (Judge Kavanaugh or Dr. Ford)- you’re a partisan hack with an agenda that was settled in your mind before you ever heard one word of testimony. Only God and the aforementioned parties know exactly who is telling the truth. (Prov 18:13).
2. If you can speak disrespectfully in a meme, a tweet, a post, a status update, or in a water cooler conversation about either of these people based on what you read, heard, or sensed in your intuition, you are not sensitive to the Spirit of God; furthermore, you should pause long enough to examine if you are even His! How can you destroy with your words ONE who God loves? If you can make light of drunkenness and carousing, or sexual assault as if it were nothing more than a punch line in your political diatribe…you have completely lost touch with God’s view of sin and His heart toward brokenness. (James 3:8-12).
3. If you think that there is “her truth” as several Senators referenced yesterday and “his truth”…and that they both exist in contradiction and at the same time…you have a worldview issue. There is one truth…and we may know it, or we may not. But “he did it” and “he did not do it” cannot both be true at the same time.
4. If your heart is not broken for Dr. Ford, you lack the compassion of Christ. Read Luke 10:30ff, and learn something from the Samaritan because you have mastered the role of priest and Levite.
5. If your heart is not broken for Judge Kavanaugh, you lack the compassion of Christ. Read Luke 10:30ff, and learn something from the Samaritan because you have mastered the role of priest and Levite.
6. If you think everyone, who says anything, ever, about anything, is to be believed simply because they seem very sincere…I’d challenge you to see if you are consistent with that worldview in other areas of your life. Do you believe your 3-year-old when he says he has not eaten a cookie when you see crumbs on his shirt and chocolate in his teeth? What if he swears and says he has never eaten cookies or says he is 100% certain that he didn’t eat the cookie? Does that make it true?(Prov 14:15)
7. If you think a man speaking passionately in response to weeks of attacks in the hearing of his mother, his wife, his children makes him too passionate to be an effective jurist…you’ve never had to look at the pain endured by your family while other simply unleashed venom. By the way…have you read Luke 19:41, 45? Do you think that Jesus is an impotent Judge because he wept or because flipped tables? Apparently some things are worthy of passionate response!
8. If you think “the resistance” or as I like to refer to it, “toddlering” is anything courageous, good, or honoring to God…you’ve completely missed the tone and counsel of Scripture. (too many to cite)
9. If you have an expectation that people living apart from Christ would act any other way than what I am describing, you’ve misunderstood the work of the Holy Spirit; and, if you think Christians can honor God by acting like what I have described, you have misunderstood the work of the Holy Spirit. (Luke 6:43-45, Matt 7:16-18).
10. Finally, if anything about this confirmation process gives you a sense of pride rather than shame… you have a strange sense of pride. I am embarrassed that US Senators are pursuing “gotcha points” and reading comments in a high school yearbook in a confirmation hearing! I am embarrassed that an uncorroborated allegation from more than three decades ago can be used to destroy a man and his family…simply because a woman said it and it would be seen as cruel or politically unhelpful to say…”it may have happened, but we cannot be sure…and part of that reason is related to the fact that there is no corroboration and the crime was never reported…not to mention the timing is a little suspect.” (Prov 14:34).

It brings me to tears to watch a woman, who is broken and living with the consequences of sin, struggle. (read that carefully before you @ me.) That happens almost every week in my work…not just in SCOTUS confirmation hearings. It also brings me to tears that a man who seems like an accomplished jurist and respected member of his community can be villainized based on an uncorroborated (and at least partially refuted) accusation of a deeply wounded person.

I have seen far too many lives, mostly women, damaged from sexual assault. You have no idea! I have also watched good people destroyed over optics and accusations and watched families, including my own, absorb the pain of a verbal assault by nefarious creatures with darkened hearts, while others sat silently by…watching it happen in fear or apathy…but communicating agreement by their silence.

I am grieved…and frustrated…at the brokenness of the world around me and I find no ultimate hope in the institutions of man, be it social constructs or governing bodies. My only comfort is the sovereignty of God who has already promised that every sin will be judged…every sin. No one is getting away with anything…and He judges by a singular, unappealable, and unimpeachable declaration of what truth is. As a sinful man that terrifies me, but as a man forgiven by God and living under the payment offered by the Son of God Himself, I stand humbled, and thankful…while growing in holiness and in my obedience to His purpose for my life.

<memes, >prayer+repentance =righteous hope