Will I Ever Make It?/Live It!

To perfection, that is.
Will I ever make it to perfection?

As difficult as the process is here on earth, I wonder how it's possible ever to reach that improbable conclusion in my life. But of course, I won't reach it during my lifetime. God has promised it in eternity, once I've shed this fallen human self that now carries me around.

And yet, God still works on me today, cutting away the bad parts and propping up the good, moving me towards His inevitable goal for my being. But I resist, not really wanting to go there. It is too hard, too much against the grain of who I am at the core of my sinful self. Am I missing something here?

As I reviewed Wednesday, C. S. Lewis said it takes adversity to move us from where we are to where God wants us to be. We have to be forced. And even then, we fail to see adversity as a good thing, as God's tool to improve us. We need to understand and work with life's troubles.

In addition, there is one more thing we lack, according to Lewis in his book Mere Christianity: a vision. Lewis said, "It seems to us all unnecessary: but that is because we have not yet had the slightest notion of the tremendous thing He means to make of us."

If only, says Lewis. If only we could somehow get a glimpse of what we would be as a perfected being, then we would have the motivation to move with God as He seeks to improve us.

With this inborn sinful nature, though, how can we ever perceive what perfection looks like? How can we possibly know--even at the most rudimentary level--what God intends for us by perfection?

Thank God for Christ! Not only is the example, the picture, of perfection found in Christ, but the means to achieve it as well. The author of Hebrews 12:1-3 sums up the process. Like an athlete in training for the big event, we have to work on throwing off all the bad things that hold us back from perfection. Our eyes should be trained on Jesus. He is both the prize and the template.

Look at how Christ lived his life. That's the perfection we seek. Then observe the suffering Christ endured so that we might be able to obtain the very same perfection. Christ is both our goal and our motivation.

So, the next time adversity comes knockin', open the door and say, "Welcome, in Jesus' name!"

Will I Ever Make It?/Go Deep

Ouch! Aaaaah!
How is it that C. S. Lewis can deliver a blunt lesson and still put such a fine point on it?

Lewis has just proposed that God's intention for Christians is to move them as close to perfection as He can before death overtakes them. But how will God do that? Lewis explains further:

"That is why we must not be surprised if we are in for a rough time. . . When troubles come along--illnesses, money troubles, new kinds of temptation--he (a man who has turned to Christ) is disappointed. These things, he feels, might have been necessary to rouse him and make him repent in his bad old days; but why now?

"Because God is forcing him on, or up, to a higher level: putting him into situations where he will have to be very much braver, or more patient, or more loving, than he ever dreamed of being before. It seems to us all unnecessary: but that is because we have not yet had the slightest notion of the tremendous thing He means to make of us."

Like I said, ouch!

As Christian men, we are surprised when trouble comes our way. Why? Two reasons.

First of all, we don't see troubles as a catalyst for improvement in our lives. Our first response when trouble shows up is always, "Darn, why me?" If we take to heart what Lewis is trying to tell us, our first response should be, "Okay God, what are you working on now?"

Second, we simply don't feel the need to grow. Left to ourselves, chances are slim we would ever move up to the next higher level. We just don't dream of improving those aspects of our being. (Who wakes up in the morning and says, "I want to be more patient today"?)

So God forces us into growth--probably in the very areas we are most adverse to improving--by giving us a healthy dose of adversity where we need it.

But even if we recognize that God is seeking improvement in our lives, Lewis sees an even deeper reason why men don't respond well to God's promptings. Do you see it?

Let's talk about it on Friday. I'm still working on reasons one and two.

Will I Ever Make It?/Think About It

Ever read C. S. Lewis?
He makes me think in ways that hurt. But, it's a good hurt.

Like the coach that yells, "No pain, no gain," Lewis proposed in his book, "Mere Christianity," that the gain that God wants for His followers comes only through pain.

Hear Lewis ruminate in this excerpt:

"Here is another way of putting the two sides of the truth. On the one hand we must never imagine that our own unaided efforts can be relied on to carry us even through the next twenty-four hours as 'decent' people. If He does not support us, not one of us is safe from some gross sin. On the other hand, no possible degree of holiness or heroism which has ever been recorded of the greatest saints is beyond what He is determined to produce in every one of us in the end. The job will not be completed in this life; but He means to get us as far as possible before death."

What an amazing thing to contemplate! First of all, we can't make it through a single day without messing up. God knows that. And yet, He isn't satisfied to leave us in that condition. His plan of redemption (through His Son, Jesus Christ) eventually involves perfecting us. But, on the road to perfection, there's a lot of work to do!

Before we get to the "work" part, let's camp on the very happy thought that God loves us enough to not let us stay the way we are.

Enjoy, because the big "but" statement is coming fast. The questions to think about? Just what will God have to do to me to grow me better? And, for how long?