I have at least three things in common with everyone I will meet, no matter what gender, race, sexual orientation, or political persuasion. The first is that we're both created by God as His image-bearers and placed in this moment in human history. The second is suffering. This person before me either has suffered, is suffering, or will suffer. The third is that we're both "sinners" -spiritually lost, dead, and bankrupt, in ourselves, in need of God's grace, forgiveness, and life found only in Jesus.
It's interesting that one of the criticisms of non-religious folks is that we're using "religion" as a "crutch." Years ago, I would have become defensive and argued at the idea, but today I happily admit that Jesus is like a crutch but so much more. Why the change of heart? Often we're tempted to think that our spiritual walk with God is a lot like physical therapy for person recovering from a crippling injury. When many of us first come to believe, we imagine we're like someone who just awakened from a horrible accident and received the diagnosis that our legs don't work. We rely heavily on God, especially at first, like a recovering man would with crutches or a walker. And we imagine that as we work our spiritual muscles, as we do our disciplines and try hard to be good people, as we do more spiritual therapy, we get stronger. God lets us walk through some hard times too, perhaps, and that gives us the extra push to work out a little hard...
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