Imperfect stumbling

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay 

Since the beginning of the year I’ve been doing a deep dive on what I believe, about my faith, and how to be a better person and Christ follower. During this reflection, I was taken back to a book I read last Fall by Rachel Held Evans and this passage:

A meal is sacramental when the rich and poor, powerful and marginalized, sinners and saints share equal status around the table. A local church is sacramental when it is a place where the last are first and the first are last and where those who hunger and thirst are fed. And the church universal is sacramental when it knows no geographic boundaries, no political parties, no single language or culture, and when it advances not through power and might, but through acts of love, joy, and peace and missions of mercy, kindness, humility. In this sense, church gives us the chance to riff on Jesus’ description of the kingdom, to add a few new metaphors of our own. We might say the kingdom is like St. Lydia’s in Brooklyn where strangers come together and remember Jesus when they eat. The kingdom is like the Refuge in Denver, where addicts and academics, single moms and suburban housewives come together to tell each other the truth. The kingdom is like Thistle Farms where women heal from abuse by helping to heal others. The kingdom is like the church that would rather die than cast two of its own out the doors because they are gay. The kingdom is like St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland, Tennessee, where you are loved just for showing up. And even still, the kingdom remains a mystery just beyond our grasp. It is here, and not yet, present and still to come. Consummation, whatever that means, awaits us. Until then, all we have are metaphors. All we have are almosts and not quites and wayside shrines. All we have are imperfect people in an imperfect world doing their best to produce outward signs of inward grace and stumbling all along the way. All we have is this church—this lousy, screwed-up, glorious church—which, by God’s grace, is enough.”

― Rachel Held Evans, Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church

This passage captures how I think my faith should be expressed.

Faith and being a Christ follower is messy, I’m learning. But that’s okay. If it was easy it wouldn’t be worth it.

The hardest thing is letting go and knowing God has it. It is scary, but freeing. So today, take a moment with me to reflect on the truth that Rachel Held Evans points out that we are all imperfect in an imperfect world and we are stumbling along. Then look up and know in your heart that God is there.

He is leading the way and we have nothing to fear.

Scurrying Cockroaches

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

What do you think when you turn on the light and you see the cockroach scurry into the shadows?

If you’re like me, then that scenario is one that just creeps you out.

Dig a little deeper though, and maybe we have more in common with the cockroach than we’d like to admit.

I think Jesus was right when he said –

And the judgement is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.

John 3:19 NLT

Think about it. As humans, we get a thrill out of doing things that are “bad” or “evil”. Why do you think the novel Fifty Shades of Grey was such a success? At the heart of it, though, why do we do the things we know are evil?

I think it’s as Jesus said. We love the darkness more than we love the light. The darkness is easy. The light is hard. We choose the darkness because we don’t want to admit to ourselves that we do bad things, and we certainly don’t want others to know.

It isn’t easy to live a life always doing what is right. We are human, and as a result, we are prone to make mistakes. We make the wrong decision from time to time. But covering it up is always going to be worse than what we actually did. If we were to be honest with ourselves and tell the truth, we could seek out forgiveness and learn from the mistake.

And I think that’s what God wants us to do. He wants us to come into the light, to live the way of truth and do what is right, so that we will be seen as examples by others that it is good.

It’s why God sent Jesus in the first place. So that we’d have an example to live by.

Some people will continue to be the cockroach seeking the darkness. But I implore you to seek the light. It isn’t always an easy path. There will be times when you will falter. When you do, lift up your voice to God in prayer asking fro His forgiveness. Then get back up, dust yourself off and continue, because following the light is the way to eternal life.

What do you think? Is there any hope for humans, or are we destined to continually seek the darkness?