Have you ever seen the movie Clear and Present Danger with Harrison Ford?  There is a scene in it as the team was being formed and they had to choose a sniper.  He was virtually uncatchable.  He would fire and when they would get to where they thought his position was, he was gone.  Typical of snipers.  Get the job done…undetectable…then get out of there.  A sniper’s whole purpose is to upset the apple cart of someone’s life.

I WAS A SNIPER…A MORAL SNIPER. 

“Ahem!  Explain yourself.”  Be glad to.   Two statements Bob Goff makes in his book Love Does, even though in separate chapters, flow into one stream for me.

I used to want to fix people, but now I just want to be with them.

I used to think I had to act a certain way to follow God, but now I know God doesn’t want us to be typical.

They might not seem like fruit from the same tree to you, but please hang in there with me.   It is sad and hard to admit that I am was am a fixer.  An unwritten law in my head said, “I know your problem.  I can fix you.”  I don’t think I need to even tell you how silly that sounds to me these days.  Me?  Fix people?  You have got to be joking.  To fix implies that you yourself are fixed.  Sheesh!  Nothing could have been farther from the truth.  BUT I thought I was and “if you wanted to be fixed, then do it this way.”  Oh yeah, this way was better interpreted as my way.   So in true Acts 15:10 fashion, I put yokes on people’s necks that I, myself, could not even bear.

I was a sniper.  I was disrupting another person’s way of living by imposing my set of values on them.

I needed to learn that I don’t need to can’t fix people.  That is God’s job anyway.  But what I needed to learn was we are all a “mess” and instead of trying to fit someone into my mold, enjoy the company.  Besides, one size doesn’t fit all.  How in the world could I have ever expected that to work anyway?

Bob Goff does a good job of reminding me of this in the early part of his book.  It is a hard lesson to hear.  It is an even harder lesson to practice.   He goes on to say,

People who follow Jesus, though, are no longer typical-God is constantly inviting them into a life that moves away from typical.  Even if they have normal jobs, live in normal houses, and drive normal cars, they’re just not the same anymore.

No argument here, but I sure wish I had heard this years ago before I “shot” some people out of the water.   How about you?  Are you a fixer?  A sniper?  How do you plan to change?   This is part of my series of posts on Love Does by Bob Goff.  You are welcome to join in the conversation.