He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8
I think for many of those outside of the Church looking in that Christians must seem very strange creatures. In one sense, outsiders sometimes think that we are those who “have it all together”. No longer sinners, but Saints. Yet in another sense, too often they see that we Christians not only “don’t have it all together”, we are sinners just like everyone else.
At times we Christians like to pretend to have it together when in fact the big difference between us and everyone else is that We Are Still Sinners, but We Are Saved By Grace. The difference between unbelievers and believers is that we Christians have put our hope in Jesus.
Smart Christians not only know they need God’s Mercy and Grace on a daily basis, they admit they have weaknesses, and with God’s help struggle to do better.
I know my own faults well. And they keep me more humble than I would be otherwise. I have a fiery temper. Always have. Along with it I have a sharp tongue. I mastered the art of cussing at a young age and still struggle with that habit. I can go weeks with hardly a bad word leaving my lips, but give me a rough week and a short fuse and we’re off to the races. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to pray about that.
There is a saying: If you think I’m bad now, you should have seen me before I became a Christian.
I became a Christian at a young age. But ours was not a religious home. Mom insisted we go to church so we could make up our own mind about God. We lived in a trailer park that was not the holiest place on earth. There was a guy who sold marijuana two trailers to our right. At the far end of the park lived several guys in a biker gang. Cussing, smoking, drinking, and drug use were regular occurrences in our neighborhood. Then there was a gay married couple (one guy wore a dress and pretended to be a woman during the ceremony. This was long before gay marriage) living across the road three trailers down.
I remember once I asked the neighbor lady who would cut my hair to do my makeup as a character from the KISS rock band for a church halloween party. She got the gay guy who lived next to her to do my makeup. I was probably around fourteen years old at the time. Thinking about it today the irony is not lost on me: a gay guy puts makeup on the Christian kid to attend a church party. That’s enough to make some Christian heads explode.
I wrestled with God through my teenage years even as a believer. I didn’t really begin to get my act together until I was around twenty years old. I was still a Christian through those rough years with my teenage angst, but there was not a lot of fruit to show for it. Thankfully, we have a merciful loving Lord who is patient with us all.
There has always been pressure on Christians to act like they are better than they really are, especially in church and around other believers. Even when the truth is we are all far from perfect. We must walk a narrow road of standing with God and His Word when it comes to sin, and yet not lose sight of the fact none of us has fully reached that perfection on this side of heaven. How could we? We live in a sin sick world and are “housed” in a body affected by sin.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:8-9
None of this means we should not strive, with God’s help, to be better than we are on this earth. Indeed, We all need to grow up into the faith, that’s why scripture admonishes us to do better.
A few years ago I was in the McDonald’s drive-through. It’s a two lane situation and I had given my order and started to move up from my lane. The car in the lane next to me leapt forward and the driver ‘went off on me’. For several seconds I was ready to jump out of the car and let him know who was the first in line. I learned from a young age after being bullied that my response would no longer be “flight” but always “fight”. And that’s how I reacted. Somehow, by God’s grace, I reigned in my temper and settled down. A little later, thinking it over, I started to laugh about the situation. Imagine a Christian in his fifties jumping out of his car at a McDonald’s drive-through and getting into a fist fight over who should get their Big Mac first. Like I said earlier: You should have seen me before I became a Christian.
Prayer: Dear Lord, we fail in many ways. Never let us lose sight of the importance of humility, and the amazing grace and mercy You have shown to us all. Amen.
