Identification

So many times we are quick to point fingers, to label the sin and the sinners it belongs to. We feel the need to make it clear to God that we weren't "apart of this or that sin", as if God doesn't know and see everything already. God is both Justice and Love. We don't have to sway him to know truth. Maybe we should consider the opposite approach; a concept of identification that the old time prophets, Ezra and Nehemiah, so graciously walked out. Identifying with the sin of others. Replacing the "you's" with "we's", lifting others' sin upon our own shoulders...walking beside, sharing the burden...Identification. Implying that we are so moved to the grievance of sin, and it's consequences of bondage upon God's people, that we enter the muddy waters, grab hold of the sin in our own hands, and cry to God on behalf of his children. What if America's leaders were to identify with the national sins that this country has committed, both throughout history and as we speak? What if leaders, today, were to attach sin to their name so as to ask for forgiveness? I keep getting this image of Jesus, stretched out...wreathing in pain with all of the sin of the world to his name. He took responsibility for our sin. He identified in order to bring grace and freedom. A leader leads out in taking responsibility for the actions of his/her team...their people. Let us follow in leading out as imitators of this most humble and gracious, Jesus, who in his identification of our sin, became our Savior.