A while ago, a brother who recently came to my church told me that my life is pretty much establish and doing well. I didn’t know what to say but simply smile and said thanks.
I wondered what he see in me. How’s my life established? If he only see the sins and the failures in my life…would he see how the Gospel worked in me?!?
Reading Tim Chester’s blog post, Two Conversations: the Unthinkable Reach of the Gospel Part Two, he mentioned there we needed to be aware for Christian to not move towards well worldly establishments. Not to make the gospel look strong….there is something here.
When people see me, do they see that because I have all my life together. Good job. Triathlon. Wow, Cliff has everything going on for him. He is so good. How can I be like that? My life is worst than his. I can’t be Christian b/c my life is so mess up.
Or do they see God working in a broken body..do they see His mercy and grace working through me? Wow, Cliff is mess up and broken. Yet God still have mercy in him. I think I can follow a God like that.
The strong and the weak…it is always a push and pull. There are some external factors like culture expectations and what not. To be honest, I think most of it comes from my heart. My desire to be seen as a somebody. In Chinese, there is a saying that we should live a life that is above everyone else. To make a mark. To make a name for myself.
This can be in Christian life as well…I can puff myself with all the knowledge I know about God, Scriptures and my own works (hey I serve this, this and that). “Oh…Cliff is such a strong Christian b/c he knows xyz…“
As a Christian, is there a need for that? When our inheritance and our security lies in Him. The King of all Kings. Name above all names..(even the name of cliff)….
What makes the Bible so attractive for me is reading the great heroes they have mess up lives and ordinary people. Moses were scared of his people, can’t speak and fear rejection. Jacob stole his brother Essau’s birth rights and blessing. Jonah, messenger of God, running away from God. This is not ‘strong’. This is weak. Yet we see Grace and Mercy working through out. God is so gentle.
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Wondering how I can show His Grace working through my life….
