I don't know if I've told you guys or not, but I'm currently working my way through a one year devotional book called Grace Notes by Phillip Yancey. Over the past couple of days (and for a few more days so this thread may expand) he's been talking about [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy]Tolstoy[/url]. He quoted a letter of Tolstoy's from The Lion and the Honeycomb: The Religious Writings of Tolstoy by A.N. Wilson and I guess it just stuck out and I wanted to share it with y'all... "Attack me, I do this myself, but attack me rather than the path I follow and which I point out to anyone who asks me where I think it lies. [i]If I know the way home and am walking drunkenly, is it any less the right way because I am staggering from side to side![/i] If it is not the right way, then show me another way; [i]but if I stagger and lose the way, you must help me, you must keep me on the true path, just as I am ready to support you.[/i] Do not mislead me, do not shout joyfully: "Look at him! He said he was going home, but there he is crawling into a bog!" [i]No, do not gloat but give me your help and support[/i]." It makes me think about how when a Christian messes up people blame Christianity for being false or hypocritical, instead of seeing that the person is only human and no matter how hard we try we will never get things right every time. Either way, people who do not believe or do not fully understand the power of God don't really get the concept of His grace; the same grace that allows us to come back and walk in His light/on His path when we have been staggering around, drunk on sin so to speak. Throughout this quotation, I feel like there are reflections of messages in the bible, and the last sentence reminds me of the verse about trying to pick a splinter out of your friends eye when you have a log in your own (can't remember where it's from at the moment)... I hope you understand my musings, because I often have trouble articulating what I am thinking/feeling :)