We All Have A Rap Sheet… Well welcome to my musings on criminality faithful readers! It’s probably the last thing you would imagine for a devotion but I have been musing on this for quite a while and I feel the nudge of God to write about it so hang-on and tune-in on your own rap-sheet.

I am reading a wonderful new book from Max Lucado about Jacob which I needed to read because rarely do we get into the life of this Old Testament guy. Which is sad because his life is pretty much what we are seeing today! Is there a day that goes by where we find more indictments of politicians, corruption, and criminality in every sector of our lives? Before we dive in, I want to clarify that this is not about politics although we know all too well that in our corrupted society, they are indeed a big part of that—nuff said.

Max wrote: “Jacob’s rap sheet included words like cheater, deceiver, trickster, grifter, liar, womanizer and coward.” Have you ever read the story of Jacob’s life? I think most of us remember his problems with his brother Esau, but there is so much more. Jacob is considered one of the patriarchs in the Old Testament but his life is a bit more like “a patriarch gone bad.” In fact, the name ‘Jacob’ means ‘Deceiver’ which, in Hebrew, means ‘heel.’ Being a heel is certainly not something we would expect from a patriarch, right!

Yet, in the end, God would not give up on this rogue fellow! One night Jacob and God were in a down-and-out-wrestling match. It lasted all night and finally, in the early morning, Jacob pinned down God with a loud shout “give me your blessing” and God did. In fact, God changed his name to Israel but the consequences of his bad-boy ways? His hip was out of joint and he walked the entire years of his life with a very painful limp.

Let’s face it—Jacob was a bit of a mess—aren’t we all sometimes? Like him, our spiritual walk follows many crooked paths, some so dangerous we can lose our life or be damaged for the rest of our life. If we do this often enough, our hearts get hardened and our relationship with God withers like a spent dandelion. Our rap-sheet gets longer and yet we cannot quit—we love our power and our faults—not us—we don’t do anything wrong—we are smart enough to get what we want and we have adopted the idea that we are “above everyone else” including the laws in our country! The outcome of this hurts our families and all those around us. Whether we keep skirting the law or find ourselves in prison, the end-game is a solitary life with huge regrets. Once we think we are the ‘prince’ of it all we believe that nothing can happen to us, but sooner or later it will. Then—what do we do?

Jacob’s life is a reminder for us that God never gives up on us no matter the volume of pages of our rap-sheets! God still loves us, God still has a place for us, and thankfully, God does NOT toss us out when we screw up…but there is a caveat here: we will be responsible for our crimes—period. God loves us deeply but God also lets us reap what we sow.

Jacob’s hip was a constant reminder of his bad-boy criminality. He forgot that evil rebounds all the time and he also forgot that good does the same thing. The choice is ours, what will we take? Jesus summed up this principle in his words from Matthew 7:2 [NLT]: 

“For you will be treated as you treat others.
The standard you use in judging is the
standard by which you will be judged.”

Jesus’ words are like a boomerang; the choices we make whether good or bad, will always come back to us…gulp!

In closing, I again use Max’s words as a question: “Do you want God to disperse mercy upon you with a bucket? Then use a bucket as you disperse mercy to others. Would you want him to use a teaspoon? Well, you get the point. God never gives up on you.” Dear readers, the love of God is so beyond what we can comprehend and yet, there is God—right there for you and me not just in troubled times, but always—always ready to bless us and lift us up out of the quagmire we’ve put ourselves in. So, like Jacob, we have a choice—let’s choose wisely. AMEN.