gloating

I confess, there were a few times during the Olympics when I was just as happy about someone losing as I was that my preferred athlete won. 

That's natural, isn't it? We like to see arrogant people taken down a notch or too. Sometimes we even like it when bad things happen to a rival. If the starting quarterback on the other team is injured, that's good news for us, right? If that golden-voiced soprano shows up at auditions with a cold, that just evens the odds a little bit.

But God's people shouldn't think like that, because God doesn't. He sent the prophet Obadiah with words of judgment against Edom, those descendants of Jacob's twin brother Esau. In Obadiah 1:12-13 God admonishes, "You should not gloat over your brother in the day of his misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble. You should not march through the gates of my people in the day of their disaster, nor gloat over them in their calamity in the day of their disaster, nor seize their wealth in the day of their disaster."

Of course, this is a judgment against a nation, so it would be easy to apply it to our relations with, say, Russia or Iran and move on. But God is completely constant in his character, so because there's little I can do about our official national positions I see here direction for life.

It's another example of how radical Christian obedience really is. Not gloat when Mr. Perfect embarrasses himself in a big meeting? Not gloat when Miley Cyrus gets flamed on social media for her outrageous behavior, or Lindsey Lohan ends up in jail? Not gloat when some piece of dirt surfaces that will hurt the opposing candidate? Not gloat when my insufferable co-worker's golden-child daughter gets a DUI?

On reflection, I find that while I may not be a world-champion gloater, I'm probably a very gifted amateur. My first reaction in a lot of situations is to feels satisfaction when someone else gets what I think they deserve. I find, for example, that I'm more interested in Colin Kaepernick than I've ever been before because I want to see if his actions bring consequences.

By God's grace, though, I don't stay in that mindset for very long. Usually my next feeling is shame at my smallness, and then often there's a quick word of prayer for that person as a way of forcing myself to think sympathetically.

I think that's what God wants. I think he knows that my human nature wants to gloat. I think he likes it that my better self overcomes that and goes to him with it. This is one of those things that I'm mostly getting right, but can still be better at.  Thanks be to God.