How do you reconcile great men with their despicable deeds? For example, how do you reconcile Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights activist, the reverend/preacher with the fact that he was having an illicit extra marital affair up until his death? Or Gandhi, who allowed his wife to die because he refused to give her a shot or who abandoned his children while in pursuit of his great causes. Or Martin Luther who was despicably antisemitic (look up some of his quotes and it’s shocking). I mean you could even delve into biblical characters. Moses and David were murderers. Peter chopped off peoples ears. Abraham whored out his wife. And the list could go on.
Generally, as I’m sure you know, we use these stories to talk about how God uses ordinary messed up people to do great things. We talk about how he can use you even though you’re messed up…or something like that.
But let’s get real here. Lets be realists. If you had a leader in your church who was having an affair, who wanted to kill Jews (or insert any people group here), who had murdered someone who had pissed him off, who gave his wife away to be a sex toy in order to get more friends, who allowed his wife to die instead of giving her an insulin shot, and who randomly took a swipe at your ear with his sword…would you preach the same message? Would you say…”Brother So and So here murdered Jack last week, and I’m here to tell you something important. I’m here to tell you that even though So and So is a murderer God is still using him to lead our youth in amazing ways. And God can use you too!…”
Sermons are great and all that, but the reality is that application is not just a good story at the end of the preachers message. Application is rough. Application is messy. Application is dangerous.
I believe that God loves each and every person…but man, when you start talking about the application of that belief…talk about messy!*

* Obviously there are consequences for actions and all that jazz. But lets not ruin a good post by opening up a whole other can of worms…which by the way are thriving in my garage. Yep, I’ve got worms in my garage. I converted a Rubbermaid tub into a worm bin and I feed them all my leftover vegetable scraps every Friday. I love my worms and they treat me well.