Find the beauty

One thing I have learned as I get older is it can get ugly.  People are always polarized over topics, politics, religion, social issues, school choices.....and it goes on and on.  I have seen it in all areas from the playground to the pulpit and to be honest many times it seems easiest to react in anger, hurt or frustration.  In fact I am guilty just today of reacting with anger over an article about adoptions from Liberia filled with lies that use the sources created by other lies.  Then I thought about it and realized that Jesus knew this, he sat among those that polarized others, especially the religious community.  The dirty, the poor, the illegitimate, the prostitutes and yet he loved them, ate with them, didn't look down on them or turn up his nose.  He did this not because he was sticking it to the Pharisees, but simply because he saw ALL our sin.  He didn't rank one type of sin worse then the other, yes some were sexually or ceremonially unclean, but others were full of pride.  None were found worthy, hence the need for a Saviour.  He was able to find a way to find beauty though despite the sin, found the devotion of Mary Magdalene, the honest seeking of Nicodemus, the loyal follower in Peter and the evangelist in Paul.  Who am I to or in that case who is anyone to condemn another based on my perceived sin in their life.  My job is not to seek out their imperfections and point out my pride, but to seek out their beauty and the redemption my Savior found worthy of dying for.  My job is not to say or write a scathing thing or walk around picketing the sin I find more abhorrent than my own, it is to live in the power of the God I claim to believe.  It should be through living in this power that people are drawn to the God that I love, to the life only He can provide.  In reality it makes life more enjoyable.  Once we realize its not a contest, its nothing we can claim winning in nor should we get joy when we can one up one we deem a sinner, its living in the grace we were allowed and trusting in the future that God already has in His hands.