Has anyone ever accused you of doing something that you didn’t do? Me, too. Probably more times than I can easily remember, though something like that has a way of scalding itself into your memory. More so, sadly, than the times you may have accused someone else or actually been guilty of what someone said about you.
In the situation that I’ve been thinking about recently, someone purchased something from me and then accused me of breaking Copyright Law by selling something illegally.
I had never opened the pattern to see what it contained as it was part of my old stock from when I owned an online store. It turned out the item was a set of original class instructions and not a design at all.
I contacted the designer, explained how I got the pattern and asked her what I could do to make it right. I also contacted the accuser and gave her back her money and asked her to send the pattern back to the designer at my cost.
What ended up happening was something that I never expected. I expected condemnation from the designer but, instead, I got forgiveness and, unfathomably, assistance in my budding career as a designer.
The lady who designed the piece was happy to get her original instructions her class back as she had lost them. They were in another design and that was the one that I had sold.
She and I got to know one another and she began to mentor me and included me in an exclusive designers group which I still belong to to this day.
What I didn’t know about her then but do now, is that she is also a Christian. Our religion was never discussed, instead, she simply acted out her faith.
She forgave me for selling something that was clearly (though internally) marked not for sale. She then lifted me up and set my feet on the path that I was hoping to walk down.
Because of her kindness and her actions, I have tried to offer assistance to others who want to design. It taught me a lot about lovingkindness and what Christ would have us do for others. Not just in the design world but in all walks throughout our life.
There have been other times when people have lied about me. There have been times when individuals have done their best to bring me down in order to bring themselves up. I’m sure there will be even more times in the future when this kind of thing will happen.
It is the sin nature within us that tries to tear down others and to lift ourselves on high.
I was recently reading the Bible and came across various stories where the prophets of ancient time warned about this over and over again. In many cases, those prophets were put to death.
No one wants to hear that they are not the best, though in their hearts they already know it. They want to fool the world into thinking that they are more than they are. They want others to think that their life is the one that should be emulated. They want others to, in a sense, worship them as if they were deities.
That is sin in a nutshell. Man wanting to be God. It doesn’t matter that mankind knows how wretched they are, they still think that they can lift themselves up by their good works and be on par with the Lord.
It is a delusion. It is something that will never, ever happen. Can a pot become a potter? Can a paintbrush paint by itself? We are the created and not the Creator.
But, you might say, we can earn our way to perfection by doing good works. Even some Christians believe that. It is not the case. All of our good works, when done as a way to make ourselves greater than we are, are as worse than nothing before God.
We can never do a single thing, on our own, which will be good enough to please God.
That is not to say that we should not do good things. We should. It should come from a place inside our spirit to help someone else. It should not be done as a way to lift ourselves up.
If you do something for glory here on earth, then you have received your glory here. You will not receive any in heaven. However, if you do good things for others as part of who you are in Christ Jesus and not expect any form of credit, God in heaven will see that and your reward will be in heaven.
I learned a lesson from the situation where I was falsely accused. I learned to help other people even when they have wronged me.
It isn’t always easy to turn the other cheek but Jesus has told us to do so.
Matthew 6:1
“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”