The Struggle part 2
Trying to be somebody you're not is a struggle that is doomed to end in failure, frustration, and ultimately death. Why do you think so many people leave the church? Because (for some reason) we are still preaching the Law of Moses. Still trying to get people to behave in a certain way. And the way we teach it is: You're a dirty sinner. You need to deny yourself and be more like Jesus. But whenever you deny yourself you're literally working to undo the finished work of the cross. It's like we don't understand that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. God made you specifically YOU. He put talents and desires in you. To say, "I can't be me, I need to be someone else--even a "better version" of me," is to say that what God did when He made you isn't good enough. That's why life seems like such a never ending struggle; because we're caught in a cycle of guilt, and shame, and condemnation because we're being told that we're not good enough. And no matter how hard we try we can never BE good enough. There's always one thing we lack. The carrot is always out of reach because the stick keeps moving. The Law of Moses demands perfection without being able to produce it. And the world has it's own idea of perfection--or beauty--that no one can attain. Yet we've made that idea of perfection the goal. If we mess up we think of ourselves as failures. When really... most of the time you have to do something wrong before you can do it right. That's called learning. I like to use the example of a baby learning to walk. Does a father get mad at his baby when he falls? Or does he pick him up and root him on? He certainly doesn't punish his son for stumbling as he learns to walk. But that's the idea of God that we have. We have to struggle to be whatever the current idea of "holy" is, and if we slip up then we're on the highway to hell. The God that we've been presented is a really mean, really distant tryrant making impossible rules and then slamming us when we (inevitably) fail. A creator who made crap and expects it to better itself somehow before he will accept it. Guys. That's not God. That's not love. And that's not the gospel. The good news is that even though we were God's enemies IN OUR MINDS because of our wicked works HE reconciled us to Himself. The One who would never leave us nor forsake us drew us into Himself. Made us one with Himself. Showed us who we really are by showing us who He really is in the person of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. Jesus, who went to the cross and fought (and won) the war to end all wars. Jesus, who went to the cross and finished the work. Jesus, who brought us out of the bondage of sin and death and into the promised land of rest and abundant, eternal, everlasting, Resurrection Life. If you're resting, you're not struggling. If you know who you are in Christ--who Christ is in you--then you're not trying to be anybody else. You're not even trying to be Jesus, because you understand that He is being Himself in and through and as you. And then the struggle ends and life begins!