Surviving Faith

"Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children."  Luke 7:35

This is a verse that basically says, "you can talk all you want, but what proves the truth is the way that a person acts."  People were blaming Jesus for all kinds of stuff that was nefarious, but His actions showed they were liars.

Live like that.

Seriously . . . life can be that simple.  Just live in a way that your actions prove who is right.  Sometimes friends will come to me for advice about how to respond to someone who is spreading half-truths about them.  I tell them to live in such a way that people in the future won't believe a word they say.  It usually works pretty nicely.

Unfortunately we see the complete opposite happening right now in the news.  George Zimmerman - the man responsible for shooting and killing Trayvon Martin - is showing us how this works in reverse . . . again.  Apparently today he was involved in a road-rage incident involving someone that he has had previous altercations with and was involved in a shooting.  The man who he was arguing with shot at him through a car window.  Zimmerman was missed, but how many times is this going to happen to this guy?  You have to wonder how one person can get into this much trouble . . .

If you remember, Zimmerman was at the center of a very tragic death of a young man in 2012.  

That's right, I said 2012.

Can you believe it has been three years already?  It feels like three years of continuing racial tension that fuels narratives all along the political spectrum.    

But for those who were sympathetic toward Zimmerman, it is getting harder and harder to see him as a victim.  He was arrested in January for throwing a bottle at his girlfriend.  She later recanted.  And then there was November of 2013 when he pointed a gun at a different girlfriend.  Oh, and then there was the case where he threatened his estranged wife . . . and a series of other speeding and road-rage incidents from 2012.  Yeah, it looks like aggression is a pattern here.

There is a point in which your actions speak louder than your intentions.  For all that George Zimmerman might talk about what his actions mean it does not supersede what his actions do.  

And here is the thing.  This latest incident will bring up the issue again about race and justice.  There will be all kinds of judgment about Zimmerman and race-relations in the U.S.  Those who argued that Zimmerman should have been scrutinized more in his trial were right.  And as time goes on it becomes painfully and tragically clear that people like me who thought Trayvon Martin had more culpability were wrong.  Zimmerman's actions show that he has a penchant for finding trouble, not just reacting to it.  

So not only does this affect our sense of justice, it also must affect how we move through the world.  Our actions are so much louder than our intentions.  The way we treat others speaks so much more clearly than whatever anyone may say about us.  May we live in a pattern that is completely the opposite of what is taking place with George Zimmerman today.  May we live in such a way that if someone even wanted to say something negative about us they would be instantly discredited.