If you were transported to The Hundred Acre Wood, the land of Winnie The Pooh, would you rather been roommates with Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, or Eeyore? My guess is that you probably picked anybody but Eeyore. If you did pick Eeyore, you either have a special heart to be around and minister to people who are constantly sad and gloomy, or quite possibly, you yourself are a negative person who wants to be surrounded by other negative people.

The reality is that negative people are difficult to be around. They can be tolerated in moderate doses, but after long their unhappy disposition grows tiresome. Everybody has their moments. In fact, we all even have "those days", but when our spirit is constantly overtaken with the tendency to point out everything that is wrong in the universe, we lose our appeal. We are called to be salt and light to the earth, and if we aren't being salt and light, we aren't doing our jobs as Christians.

God wants us to be happy. He wants us to live a life of celebration. If God wanted us to be somber and super serious all of the time, I doubt that Jesus' first miracle on earth would have been turning water into wine at a wedding. The  custom of the day was to hold a week long feast to celebrate a new marriage. Clearly Jesus was a man who knew how to have a grand time. I'm guessing there was plenty of smiling going on at that celebration, and I'm confident it was because of Jesus' radiant love, not because the guests were buzzed off of his good wine.

So what happens when we as Christians focus on everything that is wrong? Is there a right way to point out wrong? The answer is obviously yes. God did not leave us hanging. He gave us instructions in the Bible and Jesus modeled for us ways to shine light into the darkness. If you have a tendency to start turning over tables all of the time, I would suggest that you familiarize yourself further with the Gospels. There are plenty of reasons to turn tables over, but there are also plenty of alternatives. The context in which Jesus lost his temper in the temple was very specific, so it shouldn't be used in a broad manner to excuse behaving radically and impatiently.

If Jesus were living in America today would he be on Fox News or NBC? Would he be a liberal or a conservative? What kind of vitriol would he spew on those who opposed Him? How would he confront the issues our culture faces? Would He hold a sign up in protest at an abortion clinic? Or would he equip His followers to overflow with such passionate love that they would seek constructive ways to foster relationships with people who do not place the same value on the life of an unborn baby? Would Jesus befriend gays? Would he support legislating matters of the heart, or would He remind us that the Law was futile, and He came to earth to do what the Law could never do and that was to fulfill it once and for all. Would Jesus try and pass laws to collect more taxes to distribute to the poor, or would He embolden the Church to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, take care of the widows and visit the lonely and imprisoned? Many Jews did not see Jesus as the Messiah because they expected the Messiah to be a worldly ruler who fixed centuries of problems in worldly ways. Jesus didn't free the Jews the way they expected. He didn't overthrow the Roman government or start the kind if rebellion many wanted to see. I believe that today, Jesus would say the same things He said 2,000 years ago. He would remind us that what we did for the least of people on earth we did for Him, and He'd all at once be gentle yet firm as He also reminded us that if we love Him we will keep His commands. He'd point out that once we all were sinners in need of His mercy and grace, and that after we receive it, we must  not become self righteous and point fingers; instead, we must do the job that He has assigned us - to love Him, to love others, and go into the world and help to make disciples.

Sometimes I think our motives are pure but end up taking us in the wrong direction. I believe God's Word and I believe sin is sin, but I think we try and do God's job and we do it very poorly. We end up sounding like Eeoyre, pointing out all of the negative, but unlike Eeyore we at least try to change things. But the truth is, it is not our job to change things, at least not the hearts of man. Only God can do that through the Holy Spirit. God might choose to use us, but ultimately it is still only He who can change the heart. When we try to do God's job, we'll always hit a brick wall. It's no wonder non-Christians look at us the way they do. To them we seem like a bunch of frustrated protesters. Of course we are frustrated. We are frustrated because we are trying to do God's job instead of doing what He has instructed us to do.  We're called to love God, love others, and make disciples.  What a waste of time our lives are when we leave out the loving others part! We can't  redefine things and stop labeling sin as sin, but we also can't get an attitude that mimics the Pharisees. If we want to be true reflections of Jesus, it's important that we start behaving like Him. Jesus had no problem correcting the Pharisees. Jesus upset them very much. It's pretty unnerving to think you're holy and have God himself point out that, actually, your heart is hard and far from Him. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He still wants to point out and change the Pharisee that lurks deeps inside us all.