When you are misunderstood ...

What do you do when you are misunderstood?



I try to help clear up people's apparent misconceptions of me. My reputation must not be tarnished and my pride fed, so of course I must set the person straight. It's all about me after all. My reputation is so valuable that I must keep it clean at all costs. I'm never wrong, either, so I have to help others see that ...



Ugh... even when I'm joking about it (ok, maybe there's more truth there than I want to admit), it turns my stomach. Why is it that I can get so much in the way of myself? Why do I need to be in view at all? It's because I worship something or someone other than Christ - namely, me! And those times where I'm not worshipping me, I worship you - my fear of man issues rearing their ugly head again! My reputation is not without tarnish, first of all, and second, my reputation is not worth defending at all costs - maybe not at any cost. It's not because I'm so bad (though I fall short in every area), but because Christ is so good! It is His reputation that is worth upholding, His Glory upheld. I am not supposed to bein the business of self-justification. I am His and I serve His purposes - whether I choose to or not. He will get the Glory in my Christ-likeness and He will get the Glory in disciplining me in my sin. Fortunately for me, God has chosen to get Glory in forgiving my sin, justifying me, and adopting me into His family - if not, He would have received Glory in justly condemning me in my sin to an eternal punishment. God gets His glory from sinners - though he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked - but it makes a difference to this sinner how He gets His glory in me ...



So, what I would like to do, when I am misunderstood, is to be ready and willing to live with that, should the Lord call me to such. To be able to put down arms, physically or verbally, and allow Him to defend His honor as He sees fit. I am far too tarnished to believe my motives are always true blue, anyway.



Being misunderstood attacks me at weak points, and I don't hold up very well to such attacks at times. I pray that the Lord will help me to continue letting go of my reputation, that I would not become defensive or prideful about it - but I also pray that I do nothing to tarnish His reputation. No one wants to be misunderstod ... but God calls us to serve and die to ourselves.