Yesterday I spent the day attending to all those things on my "to do" list and lo and behold, I failed. Yep, failed. Not that I wanted to fail. I don't believe that people knowingly want to fail. Well, some can and do for their own personal reasons. In my case, I've failed every day since I was born. Not into perfect as God rules that single place. God doesn't fail. Ever!
It's not that I don't try to go through my day wanting to succeed over me not being perfect. I want to please God...well, most of the time. Yes, I'm also selfish. Every now and then life says, "C'mon, live a little!" and I break down and get a strawberry shake. I have to get the shake somewhere between noon (shakes aren't breakfast) and 5 PM. After 5 PM the sugar in the shake will affect my sleep negatively.
Some of my closest friends and relatives know that I am accident prone. That's what started this whole strawberry shake thing. I had injured myself and needed to go to the doctor and be sewed up. While at the hospital I came upon a plan to make my injury just a bit more funny. Maybe loosen up those who know me. I asked the doctor if he would mind writing me a prescription for a strawberry shake daily until the wound healed. To my amazement he did! I still have it! And so the strawberry shake took on a life of it's own. While I didn't injure myself yesterday (well maybe a little bruise) I also didn't get a strawberry shake.
You might be asking yourself what this has to do with the Christian life. It has everything to do with the Christian life. When I injure myself I don't deserve a strawberry shake. Life doesn't work that way. What I deserve is some pointed advice on how to not be injured next time. It's that way with the Christian life. When we aren't perfect we need something we don't deserve. We deserve judgment and condemnation. Yet, we don't get that. What we get is grace. Grace is a strawberry shake taken to the extreme. You and I don't deserve it but we get it regardless. Since none of us can live a single day perfectly we need grace daily. Grace is God's way of wanting us to surrender our lives to him in a loving manner.
You might be thinking that I'm out of my mind comparing God's grace to a strawberry shake. You may even think doing this comparison is a sin. Get over it. Your life and mine are punctuated with our failures and successes. We aren't given carte-blanc to do, say or be anything that would reflect negatively on God and his grace. This grace God has for us comes with a price. Just as I cannot get a strawberry shake for free, grace costs as well. It cost Jesus his life. Yet, he laid it down so that we can have a life full of...well life! This isn't something we can just plan on and have God automatically put the grace over our lives. God isn't about to cheapen his Son's death, burial and resurrection. God wants us to voluntarily acknowledge our sin and confess our sin. When we do this, grace washes over us and we are once again forgiven.
Today I plan on doing my best for God and as a witness to the world. Today I surrender my day to Him. I know that I cannot be perfect and will fail. That doesn't mean I deserve a strawberry shake. What is means is I am human. I am God's creation. Ever since Adam and Eve did their garden thing (I'm fairly certain it was an apple and not strawberries) we are unable to live a perfect life. All to often we (at least I) adopt the attitude that says I'm not going to be perfect so I should just have a good time and ask for forgiveness later. Not cool!
Whenever I have a strawberry shake I'm reminded of the injury, blood, stitches and everything else that went towards my healing. I wasn't careless when I was injured. Well, maybe just a little. Yet I was injured and needed care and healing. So it is with sin in my life. Whenever I am careless or selfish I can bet on making areas of my life less that what God wants them to be. What a wonderful, loving and graceful God! I may just have to have a strawberry shake today regardless of whether I injure myself or not. Perhaps you need a strawberry shake today also.
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