THE JOYS OF HYPOCRISY

At a Bible study being conducted at our church by a former D.S., he shared a funny true story with us. One of his members was struggling with alcoholism and had joined Alcoholics Anonymous. This pastor would go to the AA meetings with his member from time to time. One day, the leader of the AA meeting came up to the pastor and said, "You know, AA works a lot better than church. We've both got hypocrites, but we can smell ours when they show up!"

Well, last week I took a deep breath and smelled a hypocrite -- myself. You see, it's summer. The time for vacations and fun with the family while the kids are out of school. Our daughter ended up having to go to summer school, so her summer vacation was drastically shortened. As a result, we hadn't done much "fun" stuff as a family until just a couple of weeks ago. But then we got started...

We ate out, went on picnics, went to many, many movies, rented DVDs and ate take-out Chinese, went to the local waterpark, etc. I guess it was too much, too quick. After an extremely full day of fun, we were going back to the house and my daughter started complaining, "Why can't we ever do anything fun?" My mouth dropped. I was flabbergasted. How could she complain that we don't do anything fun as we're coming back from watching a movie and eating out?

Just how much had we spoiled her over this summer? To think, we had given her more fun and entertainment than most kids got in an entire summer, and here she was leaving one fun event and complaining because at this moment, she wasn't having fun. "Spoiled," I thought. "Ungrateful and spoiled." She was totally unthankful for all that we had done for her.

I began to berate her for her attitude, and all of a sudden, God spoke to me and said, "Thou art the man." And it hit me. Yes, she might have been spoiled and ungrateful, but so was I. How many times during the day did I stop and thank God for all that He had provided me that day? Just three times before meals? When was the last time that I thanked God for His salvation that He gave me, for the death of His Son on the cross, for eternal life with Him?

I was just like the 9 lepers who didn't return to Jesus with thankfulness in their hearts after being healed. Spoiled rotten and totally ungrateful. How many times had I complained to God that day because traffic was heavy, work was going bad, and I just had too much to do? Here I was, blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ, seated in the very heavenlies with Him, promised eternal life and an inheritance in the kingdom, and I was ungrateful.

I was, in a word, being a major hypocrite. Berating my daughter for a speck in her eye while I had a plank in my own. This realization broke through to me and I cried out to God in forgiveness and praise and thankfulness for what He had provided. I have found joy in hypocrisy because through my sin, God opened my eyes to the blessings in my life and led me into a closer place with Him. I pray that this week, you too, will have the eyes of your heart opened so you can see the many blessings that God has given you in your life and so that you may rejoice in thankfulness for His grace and mercy and loving kindness.