This week I am working with this beatitude: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” (Matt 5:10)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think this is passage needs to come with a reminder that true persecution finds you, you don’t find it. And if an aggression against you is “micro”, it is best to assume it exists only in your imagination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In our present culture, many people go to great lengths to FIND persecution, as small as a facial expression or as big as an entire “system”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because there is something seductive about being a victim. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I was in high school, I was the class nerd and a notorious goody-two-shoes. One Friday night I was sitting in the student section of the bleachers for a home basketball game when a police officer caught the attention of me and my classmates as he made his way up the steps in our direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The officer stopped, pointed in my direction, and yelled, “You! Come with me. Right now.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I looked over my shoulder to see who was in trouble and took a moment to realize that “You!” was me. I had no idea what this was about, but I wasn’t about to disobey a police officer, so I followed him down the stairs and out of the gym. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My classmates thought it was hilarious. “Ooooh. Steve’s in trouble now.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once we reached the lobby, I asked what the problem was and the officer told me that someone had fingered me as having thrown a cup of soda down onto the court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But not only had I not done the crime, I hadn’t even witnessed it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The officer believed me and told me I could return to the game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I remember taking two steps back toward the ongoing game, but then I stopped, turned and walked outside the gym. I would wait out there until my friends came looking for me after the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because, in my mind, even better than seeing the end of the game with my friends was being the guy who was unfairly ejected from the game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So I know this firsthand: There is something seductive about being persecuted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But persecution is only appealing if it is largely imaginary and there’s a crowd available to witness your suffering! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is NOT the type of persecution Jesus had in mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This week I am working with this beatitude: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” (Matt 5:10) I think this is passage needs to come with a reminder that true persecution finds you, you don’t find it. And if an aggression against you is “micro”, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11121,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11120\/revisions\/11121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}