Cast the first stone?

This is just a brief post. I may have missed the boat, but I do not doubt many of you do not know that the Baltimore Ravens won the Super bowl last week. I was pretty happy for Ray Lewis, but many of my friends were not.

Many people point fingers at Ray Lewis for his past crimes, and I do not mitigate those in the least bit. He got off the charges but there is little doubt that he is a murderer, and even if you do not count that infraction he still beat up his girlfriend in college and was involved in a bar brawl.

Since then he has turned a new lead, professing a faith in God and has been involved in charity work. Yet many are not satisfied, many claim he is a phony or that he is no different. I ask you, how would you feel if I were to hold you up against something you did 10 or 15 years ago? How would you feel if you were judged as the man you were, not the man you are? If I was judged as the man I was 10 years ago or even one year ago, well gosh I better give up this blog for fear of being called one the world’s greatest hypocrite.

What Ray Lewis did in the past is horrible, but so is what you have done in the past. Call him what you may, but are we any better. Well I have not murdered anyone but I have dishonored my parents, gotten into fights, lied… the longest post in the history of this blog could be the one that lists my sins. So when people ask me why I do not condemn Ray Lewis it is because I am no better than he is. It is because I am fallen too, because I am a sinner too, because I am saved too.

We are all saved, no matter what we have done in the past. I could get angry and say it’s not fair Ray Lewis is praised as a Christian despite his past—but who am I to judge? Jesus was willing to forgive the thief on the cross minutes before death simply because that thief had faith and wanted salvation, he did not deserve it which is why it is called grace.