Builded Together part 3
Let's talk about the cornerstone today. Because, as any carpenter will tell you... that's the important one. That's the one that everything else is measured off of. Let me say it in another way, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29). As He is, so are we in this world. We measure ourselves according the chief cornerstone. And not in the sense of "Look how perfect Jesus is, and look at how... not... I am." And I know that's how a lot of people see it. And that breaks my heart. Jesus is not a window into what could (or should) be. Jesus is the mirror in which we see how things really are. As He is, so are we in this world. Jesus is our true identity. He is the inner man. The hidden man of the heart (who is no longer hidden when we let the love inside come out). We don't try to live Jesus' life--nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus--we simply let Him live His own life in us, and through us, and as us. So when we measure ourselves, we don't do it in the sense of "He's so holy and I'm such a dirty, rotten, sinner." We do it in the sense of, "By finding out who He really is, I find out who I really am." When you know who you are--who you really are, which is who you are in Christ, which is who Christ is in you--you can stop trying to be someone you're not. You can grow into the temple that you already are. Perfect doesn't mean you never mess up, like Mr. Perfect in old school pro wrasslin. Perfect means mature. Learning and growing in grace and love. Understanding that we are all fitly framed together, lined up from the same cornerstone. He was the firstborn among many brethren. Brethren that are the same as Him. Not necessarily in appearance, or in what we do... but in HOW we do it. Because God doesn't want robots. When we were conformed to the image of His Son, that didn't erase the things about us that make us... us. It simply put God's super on our natural to create something supernatural. I always use myself for an example. Because that way nobody gets their feelings hurt. And I'm a writer. Always have been. When I'm writing, I know without a shadow of a doubt that I'm doing what I'm meant to do. It just feels right. But before I knew who I really was, I wrote things that I called "popular fiction" and my grandma (lovingly, I hope) called "trash." It wasn't until I started writing about Jesus that things started to come together. Now I've published a whole grip of books. And while I'm not rich and famous, its still progress compared to half-finished manuscripts collecting dust. So I'm still ME, I just do what I do... in love. For love. With love. Because of love. I measure myself not AGAINST the chief cornerstone, but THROUGH the chief conerstone. I know who I am. And that allows me to stop trying to be someone I'm not. It allows me to grow up into who I am. Who I've always been. The maturation process is a PROCESS, right? The name itself says so. So let's cut ourselves some slack and work together--builded together--to come into the reality of who we are!