Putting the Shoe on the Other Foot

1Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, 5for each one should carry his own load.

For quiet some time, I have been wrestling with God with the above scripture. He wants me to surrender this major burden that I have carried my whole adult life and I just can't seem to let it go. You see, I have always looked to others for encouragement, accountability and especially leadership. These were people that I wanted to be like. People that "I thought" had the perfect life and walked so closely with God. Of course you know where this story is headed, one by one each person has stumbled. And the thing about it is, they have all done widely different things. These "stumbles" have always left such a burden on my heart for that person. I just couldn't understand why I would feel so heartbroken, so sad, disillusioned and confused and often questioning my own ability to discern "godly" people. Then God showed me these verses. He is revealing to me the oneness that we all have/should have in Christ. That as brothers and sisters we SHOULD hurt TOGETHER. When one of us struggles we should ALL struggle, we should all be holding each other up; not looking at each other to see where to set the next mark. Not discarding people just b/c they have made poor decisions or judging them as less than us.(James 4:11)

What a relief this has been. I have always felt a little crazy b/c these things were such a burden for me. I had decided that I had some type of obession disorder. Rather, I am just fufilling PART of what God created me to do. You see for as much as I have thought about these people and prayed for them, I very seldom directly reach out to them and tell them what God is putting on my heart. This is where I am falling off the wagon, so to speak. I am suppose to be reaching out to these people; instead I have been wallowing in self pitty b/c they weren't who I had made them out to be. And sometimes, embarassingly, holding back forgiveness.

I really began to understand that we are not created to model ourselves after others or even look to others: We are only to look to him(Leviticus 26:1-3) A close friend recently reminded me that you can't put your faith in any human b/c humans will eventually let you down; but God will never fail you or let you down. That is such a basic foundation of Christianity. As simplistic as it sounds, the day that she spoke those words to me, they took on a different meaning when I considered the above scripture. She is so right. Humans are going to fall and you shouldn't put your hope in them or use them as a measuring stick, but you should put your faith in them. We should be taking what God is putting in our hearts and using it to help those who are falling to the wayside, providing forgiveness and trusting that they will return the favor when the shoe is on our foot.