COV LIFE BLOG

Like Nathan

I’ve been wanting to write a post for a while on the necessity of vulnerability and authenticity in our accountability relationships as a part of the body at CLC.  I haven’t had time, but I came across this recently in my personal reading.  I think it is a good place to start – looking to Nathan and his role in David’s life, which led to Psalm 51 (entitled “When Nathan the prophet went to him”).

“No shouts
No pointed fingers
No flashing eyes
No red-faced accusations
No inflammatory vocabulary
No bulging forehead veins
No derogatory names
No scary threats
No arrows of guilt
No concerning logic
No “how dare you?”
No “I can’t believe you would!”
No “what were you thinking?”
No public confrontation
No published rebuke
No arrest warrant
No handcuffs
No leading away to be charged
No list of crimes
No human tricks
No trying to do God’s work
No hope of forcing a turning
No confidence in the power of man
No human manipulation
No political posturing,
No, none of these.
Just a humble prophet
Telling a simple story
A sinner with a sinner
Not standing above
Alongside, together
Wanting to be an instrument
Hoping to assist a blind man to see
But no trust in self
Speaking calmly
Speaking simply
And letting God
Do through a familiar example
Painted with plain words
What only God can do
Crack the hard-shell heart
Of a wayward man
And make it feel again
See again
Cry again
Pray again
Plead again
Hope again
Love again
Commit again
To a new and better way.
Not the legacy of
Self-righteous
Impatient
Condemning
“I’m better than you”
Anger
But the harvest
Of a man of grace
Giving grace
To a man
Who doesn’t deserve grace
But won’t live again
Without it.”

I pray we love one another as Nathan loved David when he was at his worst.  Sinners giving sinners grace because none of us will live without it.
dt

 

*taken from Paul Tripp’s Whiter than Snow