This week at work has been crazy – everyone has been scurrying around doing all the things they’ve been putting off. All the burned out lights have been replaced, all the scuffs on the wall have been scrubbed or touched up with paint, and we were all instructed to wear our best business attire to work today, which is typically a “casual Friday.”
You see, the big wig, Mr. President, of our company is coming to town! He is spending the day visiting our facility, meeting with our staff. In a few minutes, he will address the company and shortly thereafter we’ll be having a lunch as a company. It’s a big day and we’ve pulled out all the stops for this man. We’re dressed to impress and we’ve put on our best.
Isn’t it funny how we feel we have to clean up all our crap before the big man comes into our life? It’s just in our nature to do this. We don’t want them to see how we live our life day-to-day, so we put on a show to make up a reality, a facade, that isn’t really there. And when they leave tomorrow, everything goes back to how it was. We fall back into our old ways, leaving the scuffs on the walls and the dust on the shelves, because in reality this is who we are!
This is often what we do in our relationships with God. We think we have to get all cleaned up before the creator of the universe, the only one that is perfect, can come into our life. We avoid churches because we think they are full of perfect people, and they don’t have room for someone as tainted as us. What we don’t realize is that everyone in this world is broken – it says so in the Bible:
“We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)
“There is none righteous, no not one” (Romans 3:10)
Being a Christian doesn’t make you perfect. Being a Christian makes you vulnerable. When you make the decision to allow God into your life, it means you’ve put down your wall despite how ugly or how bad you think you may be, and you’ve decided to let God love you.
God doesn’t say, you gotta fix all your problems before I will hang out with you! On the contrary, look at who Jesus hung out with – a prostitute, a tax collector, and on and on. He avoided, even rebuked, the supposedly “upright” people of the day, the Pharisees.
God doesn’t love us because we’re perfect, he loves us because we need him. We need him in our life to help us work through all our crap. Without Him we are nothing – our life is meaningless. We are a desperate people, and the only thing that saves us from evil is God’s love. We can’t do anything to earn it, all we can do is accept it. It’s already there – God’s gift of love – of salvation. He sent his son over 2,000 years ago to show us how much he loves us. He let his son be sacrificed – tortured and killed – to show us that he’s 100% serious about this. The blood that was spilled on redemption’s hill was for us – for the whole world – for you – for me – to cover all of our sins.
“For God so love the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not die but will have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
All you gotta do is say, God, please come into my life, I accept your love.
“For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved” (Romans 10:9-10)
Then God steps in and says, ok, let’s get to work…. that’s when the fun really begins. But I’ll save that for another day!
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
“For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)
I wonder what she (who is yet to be named) will look like…
It really broke my heart. I really love this girl… I should save that thought for a separate point though.