A while back I wrote about my sojourn along our bike trail. I am obligated to protect what I see in other’s backyards. They are sharing, even if unwillingly, a look into their private spaces. It is my duty to protect it.

Honesty hour! One of the most difficult tasks I face as a human is to see my own sin as desperately wicked and in need of the full measure of God’s grace. After all, I’m not a serial killer, a child molester, a drug addict, a thief or adulterer. I am nice. I try to be kind, loving and patient.

Scripture says we all need the same amount of grace to cross the gap between us and God. Paul uses these words:

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

Romans 3:23

For a complete picture of the depravity of humankind, read all of chapter three. The truth is evident, my redemption cost exactly the same as those I would judge as more sinful. The way to redemption is the same for everyone as well. Paul says we are made right with God by faith in Jesus, who is the exact representation of God to us. (Romans 3)

What must I do with this knowledge? In my reading today, Gregory Boyd put it this way:

Rather than being concerned with playing God over others, we must be concerned only with repenting before God for our own sins. Our sins should be to us as tree trunks we confess and seek to get rid of, while other people’s sins should be to us as dust particles we seek to hide with love.

Gregory A. Boyd, “Repenting of Religion”

And there it is again. It matters how we handle the secret knowledge we have of others. How can I, in love, hide those things that might be cause for rejection or humiliation if discovered? What do I perceive the danger to be if I love too outrageously?

What about you? Is your love outrageous and reckless or carefully meted out?