I love the ride from Wichita Falls to Lubbock. It’s three hours of singing, dancing, prayer, listening, and reflection. This particular time, I found myself reflecting about 2014.
2014 was challenging mentally, emotionally, financially, physically, and spiritually. My faith in God seemed to be tested in every decision. God had His way though I failed a ton. I am thankful that He is gracious and slow to anger. I have been showed my weaknesses in many new ways, and I am glad that He is madly in love with me and is jealous for me.
He is jealous for all of His people; wanting us to turn away from ourselves and to turn to Him. However, for some ridiculous reason it is hard for us all to live this out! We grasp many things about God such as His perfection and our imperfection but, when it comes to making a decision on whether to follow Jesus or trust ourselves we absolutely go against everything that we believe about the Gospel.
Donald Miller in his book Blue Like Jazz, says, “The most difficult lie I have ever contended with is this: life is a story about me.”
I am selfish. In God’s great narrative that is eternal, I have twisted the finite story and reversed it to give myself the starring role. We are all guilty of this in some way, shape, or form! All of the growth and knowledge that I have received about the Lord through 2014 may be summed into this statement: I am obsessed with myself.
I’m obsessed with myself, so much that I believe that I am the perfect candidate to fix myself and my problems. The truth is, the new year is only another time to better the parts of us that were revealed as hideous in 2014. By trials, by suffering, by failure, I have seen who I am; Mitchell Johnson. Of course, I am going to dislike the past year when I focus on how much I suck. What has God shown me through this season?
We are not good enough for ourselves.
This is why we are always upset and constantly identifying ourselves as failures. This is the reason that when life burns to the ground, we have no hope. We are broken people, so logically anything that we try to fix will become more broken. This includes me.
The articles about you feeling better about yourself by shedding pounds or decluttering your room were wrong. The book about the 7 Ways to Become a Better You lied. The clean slate that we hope for will never exist. By repairing ourselves, we are declaring that we are not good enough for ourselves, so we need to become a better version or perhaps, if possible, a different person.
Through this philosophy, we begin to shape-shift into a different person yearly, for some of us, by the hour. In addition to this yoke that we carry to become a better person for ourselves, we become completely overwhelmed when God gets thrown into the mix! How can God be in love with someone who is afraid of who they truly are?
The Better You
Friends, God is not looking for a better you. God is not waiting for you to get your act together and clean yourself up. He is not standing with His arms folded with veins popping from His forehead. The reality is that we must admit to our weakness and submit ourselves, as we are, to the Lord. He is waiting on us to quit.
To quit depending on ourselves.
To stop fixing ourselves.
To begin trusting Him.
Perfection or Submission?
God has purchased our lives by spending His Son, Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). In this act of mercy, God has done something humanly impossible; making us perfect.
He has not done this by way of a holy infomercial. There’s nothing that can rid us of our sin for 3 easy payments of $39.99. But there is His Son’s blood, which was shed a couple thousand years ago. Not to forget His Body, which was raised so that our faith can be perfected in the Living Lord!
Perfection is not the answer to our faulty character, immoral behavior, and sub-par appeal. Jesus is perfect. And the answer to our seemingly unsatisfying story comes in a surprising package.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
Christ has appointed the weak to inherit the Kingdom of God.
To the people who believe that this new year, new me deal will work well for you, I am sorry to say that it will not. Last year, it didn’t work. The year before, it didn’t work. This may sound shocking, but there is no such thing as a better you.
There is great strength in our weakness. In our weaknesses, Jesus is shown as great and worthy of worship. The better you is the weaker you. This is what the Lord wants this New Year; for us to depend on Him and think of ourselves less. If there were a way to clean ourselves up, then there would be no need for Jesus. There would be no need for a perfecter of our faith! In fact, there would be no need for faith at all.
This new year may have more troubles and failures than the last, however, one thing is for sure. God is great in my weaknesses, and this story is all about Him.
Let’s remind ourselves of this truth!
mitchjay 