Day Thirty-Three

Day Thirty–Three // March 26 // Confronting

“Jesus claims rule over all of heaven and earth. He presents himself not as one possible path to God, but as God himself. We may choose to disbelieve him. But he cannot be one truth among many. He has not left us that option.” – Rebecca McLauglin –

I grew up in a house rather different than most. I never – not once – saw my parents arguing. I never heard them fight. To this day, I’ve never heard them mutter a cross word about the other. And it was really, really special… but it meant that I never knew that conflict could be constructive. I didn’t have a model of what healthy arguing looked like. In fact, when my wife and I first started dating, and as we really started getting serious – I mean serious to the point that we had what a buddy of mine calls “heated fellowship” – I was really worried. I thought, “Man, I stink at relationships. I’ll never be a good husband; I’ll never be a good father.”

99

And it took time, it took years for us to learn how to fight well, how to have those critical, constructive confrontations.

I’m told that it’s a “personality thing” – that some of us are comfortable with confrontation and others of us (most of us, I reckon) are not. Instead, we learn how to hold it all in… until we don’t. We wallow and stew until, one day, it gets to be too much, and we explode – unleashing years of venom and poison into our relationship. And we can’t un-hear those words. We can’t un-ring that bell.

Confrontation is a good and necessary thing so long as it’s done well, so long as it’s controlled and measured and proportional and fair. It’s a good and necessary thing so long as it’s not “me vs. you” but “us vs. our problem.” And Jesus knew that well. More, He did that well. He was aware that, sometimes, the real toxicity of a situation isn’t in the confronting of it, but in the denial of it, in our blithe looking-the-other-way.

And He cared too much for us to allow us to wallow in our sinful, broken, helpless state. He confronts us. With love and gentleness and concern, He confronts us. In our pride, He confronts us with humility. In our wickedness, He confronts us with holiness. In our excuses and denials and all our reasons why not, He confronts with all the reasons why. He cares too much to see us languish. So, with His merciful and powerful voice – spoken through His Word, spoken through times

100 PERFECTLY WOUNDED

of prayer, spoken through trusted and godly friends – He calls us out. He calls us up. He calls us on.

With His voice, He calls us to repent of all that made it necessary for Him to suffer and die for our sake… and in so doing, He calls us home.