We've been talking about whether David's friends might have treated him differently in verse 5 if they knew what happened in verse 4, but the bigger truth is that this is not just about David. It's not just about us, either. It's about God.
David's friends did not see the glory of God in David's life because they did not know his repentance and thus, God's mercy. And if they did not see the glory of God in David's life, where do you think they were going to see it?
This is why the past couple of days have been so important - because the way that we are living our lives outside of our prayer closets has a direct correlation to how much the world can see the glory of God. Period. And do you know how much the world needs to see the glory of God?
Just look at the way that stories of acts of kindness go viral in our culture. Just yesterday, there was a story of a little boy who got hit by a pitch at a Little League game, then went out to the pitcher's mound to make sure the kid who hit him was going to be okay. And the internet is exploding.
We are all desperate for this kind of good news, for this kind of kindness. We see stories about young persons (and sometimes, old persons) who walk hours to get to work every day, and something in us wells up with great joy and a renewed hope for humanity. Around Christmas, we always see stories of police officers somewhere pulling over good drivers and giving them gift cards or a little bit of cash. And something leaps inside of us.
Every time there's good news, we all seem to breathe a collective sigh of relief and smile a little bigger.
And while that's a great thing - really, it's great - it is also a condemnation of Christians.
Because the truth is that we should be living this kind of kindness every day. We should be living this kind of discipline and diligence every day. We should be living this kind of generosity every day. These stories that the world so quickly falls in love with are the stories that we, as a people of God under His grace, ought to be living out loud every day. And if we were, these stories would not feel so rare. They would not feel so much like the chance occurrence.
Do you know how it would change our perception of the world if these kinds of stories were the norm? If these were the things we were seeing the most of everyday from the persons around us?
We would look at the stories of violence differently. We would look at the stories of injustice differently. We would look at the troubles and trials and traumas of this world differently if goodness was our starting point, our default, instead of the exception to the rule. And the only reason it's not is because too many of us are not living out our verse 4.
Oh, how I long for us to do better at this. Oh, how I wish our lives were marked by the grace that we cry out for.
Oh, how I long for my own life to do this more.
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