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Peeling the Onion

Every layer of bias brings tears to my eyes.

There is nothing easy about having the Holy Spirit reveal the ways in which I think I am better than others. Neither is it comfortable to see how often I compare myself negatively to those around me. While the process of detaching those layers is painful, the end result is a newfound freedom. Only the Holy Spirit can work on me in this way.

The funny thing is, I once played the role of a certain big, green ogre in a musical. In that show, he tries to explain how complicated he is by describing himself as an onion. NOT that he's smelly, but you'll understand him better if you just accept that he has lots of layers. This was a way to explain away his behavior, and justify himself believing that he was better off living outside of community.

How good have we become at self-deception?

The most painful layer of "better than-ism" exposed last week in the preaching was in regards to God, Himself. Sure, I thought of how I might judge others, and how much I criticize myself, but the real issue became progressively clearer. This comes down to the double-edged sword of God's Word piercing my thoughts.

1) Why do I believe I'm better than others when I place my complete trust in the work of Jesus AND I know that everyone else must do the same?
2) Why do beat myself down for being less than others when I know that I am fearfully and wonderfully made and so is every other human?

Now the tears turn from sadness to joy. My rebellion in this area has been exposed by the Gospel and I gleefully repent from that line of thinking. I must listen to the Holy Spirit when encountering others, live by the Law of Love, and protect my heart from meditating on "better than-isms" and "lesser than-isms" by taking every thought captive to obey Christ.

What a joy it is to have those layers removed by my Lord and Savior.

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