Day 2674 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

1 Peter 1:16 NIV

When I was a kid, I wanted to be just like my dad. He used to be an area supervisor for a local convenience store company, and he'd always wear dress clothes and button-down shirts and ties, and so I did too. Apparently I'd button my little dress shirts up all the way to the top button, top it off with a clip-on, and walk around like a little version of my dad. He's the hardest-working, most family oriented man that I know, and I have such a deep appreciation for everything he does and everything he has helped me learn. And I'm thankful that God gave me such a good dad to learn from and be encouraged by.

But then the day came when I didn't put a dress shirt on. I didn't grab that clip-on tie. I didn't try to copy my dad. I didn't do everything he did or say everything he said. I started changing. I started making different choices. And as I grew up, those choices grew more different, more unique, more like me and less like him. And I think that's something that all of us have in common.

I think many of us have those same kinds of aspirations when we’re little. We have these really big, really strong, really brave guys that we can look up to and learn from, and so we do. We emulate what they do. We copy their actions. We memorize their jokes. We learn things like work ethic, strength, courage, sacrifice, and tough love. We set our sights on becoming just like those tough men that we've had the opportunity to watch and learn from. But then we wake up one day and we don't copy our dads anymore. We start making other choices and maybe even rebelling a little. And as we get older and "wiser" we think we know better than they do. And we run with that idea for quite some time.

Rather than holding onto that respect we had when we were younger, we start seeing nothing but rules and expectations and fear of punishment for falling short. We have our youthful joy replaced with anger as we grow apart and become more adamant in doing things our way and branching out from who we once wanted to emulate.

I thought about this for quite a while last night as I was thinking about today's post. Those stories of growing up and getting too smart for our own good are found in our faith as well. God created us in His image. He created us with all these amazing plans and promises and goals for our lives. And for a while, we enjoy looking up to Him. We enjoy learning from Him. We enjoy being His kids. We find excitement in His plans and the things that He tries to teach us. But then the day comes when something changes. Maybe it's an age thing or perhaps a mindset issue, but there comes a day when we decide that we're going to try doing things our way instead.

We grow tired of His rules and find ourselves longing to break free and try other things. We get this idea in our minds that trying to copy God only brings a limited version of life that prevents us from experiencing the fullness that we see other people enjoying. So we rebel. We run. We leave Him and His ways behind so we can run wild and live free and find our own way.

But there comes another day when we wake up, look in the mirror, and rather seeing a little version of God in us, we see only the mistakes we've made. The happiness is replaced with regret from the sins we’ve made in doing things our way. We see only the shame, the embarrassment, the sadness that has resulted from thinking we knew better when we clearly didn't. And that pain, that regret, those mistakes help us realize that maybe our way isn't all we thought it would be. We finally discover that maybe His way isn't all that bad, and maybe we should seek a little humility rather than pride and turn back to the Father that we stopped trying to imitate all those years ago.

Maybe we should give that narrow path a try. Maybe we should stop rebelling and turn back to the only place we never really searched for peace and purpose. Maybe we should do what God calls us to do and set our hearts on being holy as He is holy. Maybe we should stop living as if we can accomplish something better than His plans and realize that His love for us is the only thing that can actually lead us to a life worth living. Maybe all those rules and regulations and expectations that we wanted to avoid were only there to help us, to encourage us, to guide us. Maybe had we not run from His help and His wisdom, maybe we wouldn't have reached that day when we looked in the mirror and didn't like who we saw looking back at us.

The amazing thing about dads is that they love us unconditionally. And that fact holds true with our Heavenly Father, maybe even more so. He knows that we've messed up. He knows we've made some bad choices. He has seen every wrong turn we've made. He understands that we've taken the path of a fallen humanity where we sought our own desires and crafted our own plans and chased our own goals. And He knows that all of those sinful mistakes have brought us to this place of sorrow and shame. Or that they will at some point if they haven’t yet.

And out of His love for us, He welcomes us back. He forgives us. He offers us an open door and a caring shoulder. He gives us the chance to turn around and get back to being those little kids again that just want to be like Him. He helps us wash away all those stains and He heals all those scars and He promises that if we'll live for Him and set our hearts to imitating Him once again, that He will lead us to something better than the shame and misery that we found doing things on our own.

Friends, I know the weight of guilt is a heavy burden to carry. So heavy in fact that we likely feel unworthy of His forgiveness or healing or help. But what we need to understand is that He understands. He gets it. That's why He sent Jesus. He wants us to see the error in all those mistakes we've made and turn back to Him. He wants us to come to repentance where we find the humility that we left behind years ago. He wants us to put Him back on the throne in our hearts so that He can lead us to something better, something we don't deserve.

Much of this world will continue rebelling against God and running as far from Him as fast as possible. But right now we have the chance to turn back from that path that leads only toward destruction and return like prodigals to the Father we chose to ignore. We have the chance to set our sights on doing what's hard in aiming to be holy in a world that is anything but. We have the chance to be kids again who only want to be like their Father. And considering everything we've been discussing about His righteous judgement and unchallenged power, well, we'd be wise to take Him up on that offer and get back to letting Him lead the way.

Oddly enough, our Father really does know best, and the sooner we realize that the better! And the sooner we realize that maybe we can come to find a true appreciation for the good and the bad, the easy and the tough, the encouragement and the correction. Maybe we could find the child that we lost a long time ago. And maybe rather than paving our own path, we can just get back to following in His footsteps. Because after all, He’s the only One who knows the way to Heaven, and there’s not a path out there that can reach that same destination without Him.

This world will always make it seem silly to imitate God. His rules are no fun. His expectations are unfair. His calling is hard and His path uneasy. But friends, there really is no love like a Father’s love, and the best thing we could ever do is live like kids who just want to try to make their Father happy by seeking to honor Him rather than living to honor ourselves.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold