Attitude Adjustment

Your life, as we will see, was meant to be a tool of restoration in the hands of the Master Artist.

But we must become more like Jesus than the Pharisees—and that starts with the right attitude of heart. Jesus must have pictured what he created people to be, and that vision affected how he felt about them. I’m sure those he encountered picked up on his attitude toward them, and that’s probably why so many muddied people flocked to him—in his eyes they saw a glimmer of hope for who they were meant to be.

I’m convinced that people intuitively pick up on our attitude toward them. What’s in our hearts toward people will be felt by them. Do we have good will toward all people? Are we for people, or really against some of them? Do we truly believe they have immense value and worth to God? Or are we secretly disgusted, bothered, shocked, judgmental, wanting to “fix them” quickly? I’ve come to believe that many Christians repel those who don’t follow Christ because we don’t share God’s heart for them. Why?

Some of us may have come to faith in Christ under a Gospel of Mud-Management rather than a Gospel of Restoration Grace. Maybe we think God saves us, and then we clean ourselves up out of gratitude, while trying hard to avoid mud. First, that doesn’t work (read Galatians). Second, it misses the point—Masterpiece restoration is a work only the Master Artist can do!

Some of us are highly critical—trained to see what’s wrong. Mud-spotting, flaw-finding, failure-anticipating might even be our profession. My father was an engineer, and I, too, have an engineering degree and worked as an engineer, and I have a critical eye for what’s wrong. I’ve discovered this works really well with problems, but not with people! I’ve discovered personally, I must allow Jesus to restore in me “eyes to see” what he sees. As I begin to see value in people like Jesus did, and even point out how I see God drawing individuals to himself, many seek him and find him.

Chip and Dan Heath, in their book Switch, give many examples demonstrating how pointing out progress motivates forward movement. For instance, Dave Ramsey helps people climb out of deeply entrenched debt. But his approach is counterintuitive. Most financial advisors would instruct a person to pay off the highest interest rate debt with the greatest balance first (because it’s costing you the most interest—which makes sense). But Dave found that approach usually doesn’t work. People get so demotivated by how much needs to change, they stay stuck. Instead, he suggests the Debt Snowball. List all debts from smallest balance to largest, and then make only minimum payments on every debt except the smallest (regardless of interest rates). Throw every dollar available toward that smallest debt until it’s paid, then move on to the second smallest debt, then the third smallest and so on. What Dave found is that with each debt conquered, greater progress can be seen, and motivation grows. He’s helped people with close to $100,000 of debt, stuck for years, finally slay the debt dragon. There’s something motivating about someone pointing out progress versus pointing out how far you have to go!

I’ve seen the same pattern in Jesus’ encounters, and I’ve seen it motivate thousands of people to come to faith in our day. Jesus would point out progress: “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:34), “I have not found such great faith” (observing Roman centurion, Luke 7:9). A Gospel of Mud Management focuses only on the mud. A Gospel of Restoration Grace sees God’s progress and hope because he’s already paid all of our debts! They just have to receive it.

Which Gospel we hold affects how we actually feel about ourselves and other muddied people. If we picture God’s goal for life as mud management, we will quickly judge and push away muddied people, or try to scrape off the mud ourselves, or just avoid them so we won’t get muddied. But that was not Jesus’ approach. That was the way of the Pharisee.