Eyes of a Heart

As a law school student, I’m often confronted with heated topics of debate. People who know my faith often know where I stand, and are often looking for an argument. There are a couple of topics of argument which recur almost every day. Abortion is one, homosexual marriage another, and right to die cases. There are others, but these are quite common. Most of the time, the people who instigate these discussions with me are angry. They want to disagree with me so that they can be angry with me, to hate me, because they hate what I believe. Sometimes I get sucked in. Its not hard for me to argue these things, because I’m convinced that I’m right, that is why I believe what I believe. But sometimes I wonder if there is a better path.
When I see what they see, I can understand why they are so angry. When I turn on the television or read the paper, I often see antagonistic messages. I once saw a man holding in sign in what was supposed to be a Christian demonstration against homosexual marriage. His sign said "Homosexuals are possessed by demons."
Who would react well to that message? Sometimes I wonder what the world would be like if we reached into our hearts and told people with whom we disagree on seemingly important topics what we all know Jesus is telling them. "I love you." "To me, what you are doing seems wrong, but that doesn’t matter because I still love you." Maybe not in those words, but just to convey that message. Because far above what anybody does is this simple fact, that they are as loved by the Almighty as anyone else.
To do such a thing doesn’t make sense. Some might even say that you would then be siding with a side we believe to be false, agreeing with them. But I don’t think it is, and even if it was, I don’t know that it would matter much.
When Jesus performed miracles, he did not ask for a conversion first. First he changed their hearts, then he didn’t even have to ask. The important thing is not that we stop people from sinning. We never will accomplish that. And when we try that path we walk away from God and follow our own lead, blindly. We end up poking everyone’s eyes out on account of the plank in our own. If we really wanted to change the world, we would find the most disgusting sinner we can find and eat dinner with them, we would get to know them. We do have an example
When Jesus was eating and talking with tax collectors, there were others talking behind his back. But what did he do? He told the sinners stories about love. He told them that a Shepard will leave his ninety-nine sheep for the one that is lost, and rejoices when it is found. He told them the same parable with a lost coin. He told them that, when a rich man’s son went astray, he came crawling back after wasting his inheritance, and upon seeing him, a long way off even, the father ran to the son and threw his arms around him and kissed him, gave the son his robe, and held a feast in celebration. Jesus didn’t tell sinners to go to hell. He told then not to. He told sinners that they are loved.
Luke chapter 15.