The ideas I want to talk about are issues that are near to my heart because they effect my friends and family. At the same time, these issues and/or actions cause painful consequences that aren't reversible. (though they are redeemable, praise God!)
Also, our actions are never outside of God's control. That doesn't mean that "God caused us to sin" but it does mean that God could (and probably did) plan on using that exact action, and that exact consequence to bring that person (and possibly several others) into a deeper, more intimate relationship with Him. With that in mind, I have a hard time figuring out how to (or even if I should) write about problems in the world, or problems in my own life.
I think I can read an article, like this one by Mark Driscoll, with two different sets of glasses:
- On the one hand, I would think "Wow! Glad somebody said it!", or "Isn't that so true, our world is so broken!- just look at these people".
- On the other hand, I think "Man, if someone is reading this that did any or all of these things, will they be more turned off to God than before?", or "What if that were me? There's not anything except Christ that would have stopped me from being that person."
But it's got me to stop and think about how to write about sin. I keep thinking about the verse Matthew 7:5-- You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. I think there's a place and a time to write about the sin of the world, and of others. I think Mark Driscoll approaches this well. For today I'm not certain my writing has reached this level of maturity. So I'll just leave you to read the post Mark Driscoll wrote on having children out of wed-lock (same link as above).
If anyone cares to comment on Mark's article and explain why it is or is not offensive to them, I'd love to hear why!
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