adventures in missing the point

So the other day, a friend was relaying a story to me about how her sister (a devout christian) hasn't spoken to her in years . . .

After a little prompting from their Mom they had the opportunity to speak to one another recently. As my friend was relaying the story of how the conversation went, I was struck by something . . . Her sister (aka: "Devout Christian") was angry with her for walking away from God & for making different choices than they had grown up with as a family. "Devout Christian" wanted my friend to take responsibility for hurting her & for their broken relationship.

My friend (the awesomest friend!) graciously accepted responsibility for the things that she, in fact, could take responsibility for & let her sister know how much she wanted a relationship with her, regardless of their differences.

"Devout Christian" wouldn't take responsibility for any of the breakdown in the relationship. She insisted that my friend was at fault for everything, but couldn't see any of her part in their relationship taking a nose dive over the last decade.
As my friend was telling me, I started cracking up & said, "Isn't it ironic that the one who is working so hard to 'do the right things' is missing the point of grace so badly?"

Haven't we all done that . . . that thing where we so completely miss the point that it's laughable. I know I have. So when I thought about judging "Devout Christian" for missing the point so drastically, I was reminded of how many times I've completely missed the point myself.

There's a quote in the book Love is an Orientation by Andrew Marin (a must read, by the way) that I just love. I couldn't find the actual quote, but the gist is that, "It's the Holy Spirit's job to convict, Jesus' job to save, God the Father's job to judge & my job to love."

Wouldn't it be a different world if we all just did our job?