Sunday, August 11, 2013

The Perfection Past Imperfection

I've been having this idea. I'm not too sure about what the Bible says on it, and I await to be corrected if Scripture proves otherwise, but I feel like what I've been thinking about is important for a few believers who struggle with serving God in their ministry.

Having gone through periods of dealing heavily with sin, Satan begins to have his way with me. I begin to doubt and struggle with the question of whether or not I should really be serving people when I'm such a messed up guy myself.

"But you're such a nice guy!"

Listen, I may be outwardly be as innocent as Alfalfa, but only God knows my heart, and the wickedness which it spawns every day. He knows my struggles. He knows my failures. And in these failures, I begin to hear whispers telling me that I should stop being involved in opportunities to serve until I've "got it all together." That I should wait until I have victory to give of myself in the high school outreach and small group activities that I lead.

Others, I feel, might rush to getting involved with serving and leading at their churches because they believe that is the way they're going to "fix" their struggle with sin. That, somehow, their act of being a leader will balance the scales of their bad deeds, or that it would point them in a direction that will help them become more holy. However, the thought that popped into my head recently was this:

Serving in ministry is not the place to go when you're messed up. Neither is it the place to go when you've got it all figured out. Rather, I think I'm beginning to understand that ministry is a place where one sinner can say to another, "Hey, I'm just as sick as you are, but I know the Great Healer, and He's doing things you wouldn't believe." 2 Corinthians 5 says,

"Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."
Now, listen to that. How crazy is it that Jesus Christ chooses to reveal Himself through a people that are as broken and twisted as we are? In other words, the Christ is saying, "I'm going to work through you, to get to _______." And the wildest part is that He knows everything about us. He knows all our failures and shortcomings and He still allows His perfection to be seen through an imperfect people.

And that, to me, is supernatural.

0 comments:

Post a Comment