Perfection

I find myself on this journey, and I don’t see my path. I feel lost unsure of where to step. The path that was so bright is now dim, and I feel as lost today as I was of days past. I listen to the words and remind myself that I have come this far, and I still have so far to go. I close my eyes, and open my heart to the Lord. Yesterday is gone, and I say goodbye, and I breath in, and take another step. I don’t know how long it’ll take, or when I’ll get to where I’m going, but I know by the grace of God, my heart beats again.

What am I looking for? Who am I now that I am rebuilding my life? All this time that’s gone by, I feel as if I’m judging myself for where I am. I have pushed myself to heal and I have expected so much from myself and yet, I’m not where I thought I would be, and thus I’m not where I feel I should be. I have pushed myself both physically, emotionally, and now I have failed to reach my goals, failure hits me in the face. With the failure to reach my goals in the time I set for myself, I feel the weight of that on my shoulders. It’s heavy and I feel ashamed of myself. Where have I put my identity? Have I lost sight of what’s important? I feel the truth is, I have tried to achieve perfection and in my failure in my own mind, I have lost sight of the truth. God never expects us to be perfect. We are never expected to be perfect, and it’s not for us to pass that kind of judgment upon ourselves. We aren’t perfect, and we never will be. We are fallible and we can’t change that fact about ourselves. One of my favorite villains in Star Trek is the Borg. They are a race bent on the strive for perfection. In that quest they destroy everything in their path. If we become so focused on our own perfection, what are we missing, who are we hurting, or sometimes worse, who are we neglecting.

The quest for perfection may lead us to be distracted to the real mission. The desire to become perfect blinds us from the Lord because we have become focused on self. This distraction leads us to vanity, pride, and to much of either can be horrible sins. When life has become so fast passed and we get wrapped up in it, we are following the idols in our life, and we no longer give the focus to God, the sovereign of the universe deserves our hearts and minds. When we let life get in the way we loose that relationship. In our quest for perfection we are missing out on something, which is priceless. A relationship with God, above all else is a gift. We are called to be an Ambassador for the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:20 “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” We are to plead because God wants each and every one of his children to come to Heaven. Every one of us will be accepted with open arms if we just give ourselves up to the Lord and follow Christ. We will be able to wash our sins aside and join perfection in Heaven. Perfect awaits us if we can get beyond the desires of our own flesh, and realize one very important fact, our ticket into heaven was bought and paid for. If we can pass up on trying to be perfect in this world, the salvation ticket we have the chance to take is a priceless gift. The blood of Jesus Christ paid for the ticket, and what once was a chasm between God and man is now built with a beautiful bridge of light that Christ built for us.

We need to slow down and re prioritize our lives. We need to ask if what were doing is to glorify God, or to glorify ourselves. We must make our lives God focuses, God centered, and whether it’s work, or school, or play, or our children, or even our spouses, what we do must be focused on God. God doesn’t want you to live your life in a bubble, but be careful not to allow your love to turn into an idol. We cannot hope to do enough good to win the grace of God. It’s not about our works, it’s about our repentance of our sins, and reconcile the flesh with the Holy Spirit. We must learn to turn away from sin as much as we can. We are human and sin will happen, but we must be aware of it. Look at your life and look deep, and face that we are sinners, we are not worthy of the day we arrive in paradise, but the beautiful thing about love is it’s given out of the goodness of ones heart. God loves us so much that he will look at our hearts, and when the day comes, those who truly loved the Lord will watch the sins of yesterday be wiped from the slate and you will be welcomed by our Abba, a father who loves his children. God loves his children and expects us to mess up. What does that mean exactly? God blots out our trespasses and loves us despite them? 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 “16Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. 17Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

We become ambassadors of the Lord to spread the good news. We have the opportunity to an Eternity of perfection if we follow the Lord. It’s not about the works, God wants us to spread his good news, but the works aren’t that important when compared to the Love for the Lord. When you love the Lord and you’re walking with him in your life the works will happen because the conviction in your heart will to be to share the name of the Lord. Those who are on fire with God can’t help but talk about Him. People who love Jesus want others to know because it is a testament, a witness to what the Lord has done in our lives. For me, I know the Lord saved my life. I was dying, bleeding out, and the Lord saved me. The Lord spared my life for a purpose on now as I sit on this couch, a dog in my lap, I write the good news of my personal Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know who my Abba is, and I know one day I will be in the presence of God and I will be able to wrap up in that glory forever. We are bought and paid for by the blood of Christ and we who live in Christ are no longer ourselves, but we belong to the Lord. We are the hands and feet of the Lord. We are the tools God uses to bring the flock to the teacher. We are but children to the Lord. We are babies in our faith and we grow and we become teachers ourselves.

We must never forget the sacrifice made on Calvary’s Cross. What can we do that would ever measure up to taking on the full wrath of God, absolving us of our debt to sin? If we think we can get into heaven on our good works we are sorely mistaken. Isaiah 64:6 “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” We are made new by the blood of Christ where the sins of yesterday are washed away because God makes all things new. We are a new creature, a new life when we are reborn in the waters of the one who died for us. When we turn to God broken, battered, lost, he will heal your wounds, give you rest, and set you on a new path. The God of all is greater then anything we could ever imagine, and in our faith, we must learn to trust in Him. We mustn’t run from the Lord. Embrace his plan, follow and you shall receive. Let God heal your wounds, and let God be the reason you sing praises, and dance, and feel the warmth of joy in your heart and soul. Let go of your retched rags, and let God shine through you. Remember that in a moment, one single moment changed the course of all our history and in that moment Jesus saved us. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus in that moment was separated from the Father, and how terrifying that must have been, how in that moment was the true test of sacrifice. Jesus sacrificed himself and in a moment absorbed the punishment for Sin bridging the gap and in essence building that bridge for us to cross over to paradise.

This isn’t in any way scriptural but the thought made me laugh out loud. In the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail there’s a scene where they come to a bridge and they are asked questions. If they answer from the heart they are allowed to pass. If not they were flung into the abyss. If we get to the bridge of light and Jesus is waiting for us, when he asks us who is our Lord and Savior He knows our heart. We have but one answer and he’ll know the truth. When we are allowed to pass we are given our gifts to lay at the feet of God. If we do not know Jesus as our Lord and Savior we are flung into the eternal torment of Hell. What do you want to offer God? On day the Lord calls you home, will you be ready to face the King?