God of the Guilty

I want to live a life worthy of my God. I want to live a life that glorifies His name. I want to live in such a way that when others look at me, they know I'm different and they wonder why...but they don't have to wonder for long because I want to live as a witness. 

We all aspire to this, once Jesus has our hearts. This is what we strive toward, the race we are running. And we think that the best way to accomplish this goal is to accomplish another - be perfect, just as He is perfect. 

We want our perfect lives to represent God's very best. That's why, by the way, most of us feel like failures most of the time because if we're quoting Scripture here, let's just throw this one in - all have fallen short. 

And let's just update that Scripture a little, too, and say what it really means - all will always fall short. There's not going to come a time in any of our earthly lives when any single one of us is actually perfect. We will always be human. We will always be creatures. We will always be fallen. (Until That Day.) 

For those of us who think our perfect life is the best offering we have to give God, this is bad news indeed. 

But it's not really bad news. 

Imagine buying a car that you never drive because it might get dirty. Having that car in pristine condition as a showpiece is what you wanted, so you can never drive it. How long until folks start to think you're weird?

Or what about buying a nice new outfit and never wearing it because it looks so nice just as it is? You buy it, take it home, hang it in the closet, and show it to everyone, but you never wear it because it might get wrinkled or stained. How long until you look at it and wonder if you even really needed (or wanted) it in the first place? 

A lot of Americans have a bad habit of buying food they're never going to eat. They like the idea of it, so they buy it and take it home, but it sits on the counter or in the fridge until it spoils, then it's thrown away. How much longer do you keep buying that food? 

The same is true with God. 

God is awesome because He's the Creator of everything. But there are hundreds of religions with an awesome creator god. The thing about our God is that He's not just awesome - He's amazing. And the amazing thing about Him is His grace. And mercy. And steadfastness. And love. And the folks who are looking at our lives are never going to know those things about Him if we don't need them. If our lives are already perfect and we don't need the incredible, good, awe-inspiring, amazing things of God, then our lives will never really witness to Him. 

It's counter-intuitive, but God doesn't need us perfect. Job perhaps says it best when he says, Does [God] profit from your perfect ways? 

The answer is no. God doesn't profit when you're perfect. His name does not get glory when you're perfect. No one learns any good thing about Him when you live a life that doesn't need Him.

God profits when you're being perfected. And that's a far better story to live.