A faithful friend who has been a counselor and adviser to me first taught me “vertical alignment”. You may have heard me reference this. It is a personal mission of how to keep my emotions and thoughts balanced. It starts at the top with God and flows to the head and heart. It’s not possible to do it in reverse. When things get out of alignment, the highs and lows that life brings tend to be elevated. The emotions, feelings, and thoughts can seem like we are going from one plot to another in a bad drama. Our thoughts, emotions, and feelings are all important to God. That is not to be overlooked. Our Father never scolds us for being too emotional; emotions are a gift and they are not things he advises us to minimize or suppress. They are something we are instructed to discern through and with Him. The process of discernment is often a process that leads to more questions and more clarity at the same time. It’s poetic when you think about it.
Just yesterday a beautiful image popped into my head as I was designing graphics for “The Two Greatest Commandments”. After crafting the words for this, I pulled the verses, ones I have read many times. As I stopped after verse 37 “vertical alignment” flashed through my head. Then as I read the next verses, a thought came to me for the first time: how wide are my arms open to others? I read it all again. The clarity that came to mind is that the love I extend to others should not be a one-armed side hug, it’s not the distance as if you were reaching down to pick up a small child. It’s fully extended, palm to palm. Discerning this, my eyes watered as I remembered Jesus’ arms being willingly nailed into that position. Horizontal. The connection of the two: if I am vertically aligned, my arms should be as open as possible, and the image of the two together is the cross.
If I am living the two greatest commandments, I am equipped to be a walking, living symbol of the cross. Words are unnecessary. Without being vertically aligned my life is not capable of bearing fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. However, through vertical alignment these things shine and I am capable of looking to my enemies, even in what may feel like defeat, and saying ”Father, forgive them” while remembering the battle isn’t over and it wasn’t mine to begin with.
Being back in the classroom and teaching college students, my education in research methods comes to mind. The quantitative piece, or the “why”, is the vertical. The qualitative piece, the question being asked, is how wide. And to take it deeper, the method of evaluation is the fruit. There are likely scholars and pastors that have had this same picture, preached on it, or written about it. But there is something intimately special about seeing it on your own through His word.
I read something recently that stuck with me. In an attempt to summarize, it stated that Jesus was not a nice guy. He was a good man. The word “nice” comes from the Latin word “nescious” which also means ignorant. Being truthful, kind, and patient are all transcendent. Being nice is transient. When Jesus told us to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:38-40), he did not tell us to ignore it or disregard it. He was not advising us to be nice, timid people. He is giving a creative strategy of how we should not focus on the wrongdoing but on the salvation. How far can we open our arms?
Plenty of people are “nice” and plenty generous. There are many other lovely characteristics and qualities we could label people as possessing, but to truly be a fruit of the spirit, it must be authentic and organic. To bear the fruit the roots must be planted firmly in God. Otherwise, the fruit may just be surface level, which will lead it to rot or be bitter at its core. I want to re-emphasize the fact that no human emotions are negative or “bad”; there are only negative responses or reactions. If you are doing it right, the emotions many deem as negative will be righteous. The things that anger you are the things that anger God. The things that break your heart are the things that break His. The things you won’t tolerate are the things He would never condone in His kingdom. The superficial is traded for authenticity.
I’ve learned to not be passive with what I will tolerate. I have gotten to the point in life where I will not accommodate, tolerate, or placate demons. The demon of denial. The demon of deception. The demon of dishonesty. The demon of indifference. You inflict abuse onto others or me, you lie to me, or you speak against Truth and you may meet the Jesus in me that turns over tables when my temple is disrespected. I can use any anger, grief, or confusion inside of me as an excuse to try to justify sin, deceiving my own heart, which I have done plenty. Yet discipline and discernment have taught me how I can use those same God-given emotions to fuel the light that Christ brings. In the Bible, darkness often references ignorance (Proverbs 4:19). On the night of His betrayal, the Light of the World was not ignorant of what was about to be done by those closest to Him, He knew those He loved would turn on Him. Yet he chose to show them love and grace. He broke bread with them. He washed their feet.
Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:39 were not telling us to stand by and do nothing when we or others are being hurt. Jesus also didn’t mean don’t confront it, hide it, or ignore it. He confronted that He would be betrayed by those sitting at His table. Not only does He address it in every account of the Last Supper (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) he speaks truth by stating that he will be betrayed, as well as directly tells Peter he will deny him three times. Look at His words about Judas in Matthew 26:24, “But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.” This isn’t a very “nice” statement, is it? But He speaks truth with love. Good men are truthful even when the truth is potentially galvanizing and these men have the capacity to be contentious, sometimes dangerous, when properly called upon. We are called to stand up for what we believe in and to continue to share God’s Word, as well as question those who try to twist it. We are called to respond to suffering without retaliation. We are not called to stand back and do nothing. We are called to share the good news to the ends of the earth. When Jesus says not to repay evil for evil (1 Peter 3:9-14), he doesn’t say there is no evil in the world. Some people are evil and some things that people do are evil. In those circumstances (and I can be to be so very guilty of this), we tend to say “Well he/she is a good person, they have a good heart”. That needs to stop. They don’t have a good heart. Jesus died on that cross to fix their heart. Their sin, my sin, your sin, is so terrible that the Son of God had to die for it. That’s what forgiveness acknowledges. Forgiveness is not acceptance of sin, it is remembering someone died because of it. Jesus’ life is a model for us that tells us we can’t treat people the way they treat us. We must treat people the way Jesus treated people. If we trust that the blood of Jesus will take care of our own personal sins, we must trust that his blood will cover the sins of others.
We get out of alignment; we make mistakes. But we are not mistakes. God is intentional and purposeful in all he does, we must be as well. We will face obstacles in life. We will face persecution if we are faithful Christians. With these, we have an opportunity to magnify the issue or to magnify Jesus. We are not called to punish the people who wrong us. We are to love them and let God do with them what He wills. We are to stay vertically, resulting in also being horizontally, aligned. This is what allows our lives to be a reflection of the cross.
Prayer: Lord, help us remember that our journey starts with You at the top, flowing through our minds and hearts. When life’s highs and lows throw us off balance, remind us to seek alignment with You. Teach us to bear fruit in accordance with Your Spirit, rooted deeply in Your truth. Help us not to merely tolerate but to confront and address negative forces that oppose truth and goodness, both within ourselves and in the world around us. Grant us the wisdom to discern our emotions, thoughts, and feelings in alignment with Your will. Just as Jesus willingly embraced the cross with open arms, may we extend our love fully to others, mirroring the breadth of Your love for us. Guide us in responding to adversity with love and grace, following Jesus’ example even in the face of betrayal and suffering. May we stand firm in our faith, sharing Your truth with courage and compassion, trusting in Your redemptive power to transform hearts and lives. In moments of alignment and misalignment, may our lives reflect the beauty and power of the cross, where vertical and horizontal love intersect. Amen.
