day 2899 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV

To present ourselves as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God is literally all we have to offer the One who gave us hope at the very chance of anything better than what our sins and shortcomings fully deserve. But in light of the fact that His salvation isn't merely a distant hope but an assured coming promise, to give Him the reigns of our lives as we fully surrender to His will should be seen as an exciting opportunity that we couldn't be more honored to undertake.

But as we discussed rather briefly in yesterday's post, there are quite a few stumbling blocks found in that calling that leave much of humanity highly uninterested, and even some who call themselves Christians rather unsure.

Could it be that we pull back at the idea of presenting our lives as an ongoing sacrifice to be used as God sees fit according to His perfect will because we're still clinging to this selfish idea that sacrifice and the corresponding humility that makes it possible appear as weakness to a world that almost literally runs on pride, vanity, ego, arrogance and this continuous facade of authority and superiority that leaves everyone feeling like the kings of their own lives without anyone having to admit that we are all incredibly far from as perfect as we try to make everyone else believe?

In truth, human weakness is something that all of us indeed carry, but it's also something that we've all been told to bury under this guise of strength and resiliency that allows us a modicum of self-confident ability through this theory that we're not as bad off as we really are. In other words, we hide our weaknesses, pretend they're not there, even fight back at anyone or anything that dares point them out, all because we've become so much like this braggadocious world that we can't bear the thought of revealing our true selves in this place where weakness is wholly unwelcome.

But why is it that we're both afraid and therefore unwilling to appear weak? What does human strength or ability or confidence or intellect really achieve for us? What is it that we're trying to gain or obtain in this quest to prove ourselves through entering this rat-race of selfish ambition that all of humanity is running? Why are we so willing to keep pretending that we're something that we're so clearly not?

Our need for worldly approval and social acceptance has become so overwhelmingly dire that we'll go to absolutely drastic lengths in order to have them. Many of which we've talked about at fairly decent length in prior messages, but arguably among the most glaring is this adamant refusal to acknowledge our weaknesses. Instead, we just keep selling this image of invincibility that keeps the world thinking that we too are these superheroes that everyone else is pretending to be.

What's rather worrisome about the whole ordeal is that by continuing to do all of this pretending, reality and our callings granted us in that reality are being left undone, unattended, unaddressed. And while much of the world around us clearly doesn't care to go on existing outside of reality and truth and moral responsibility, as Christians we're called to uphold all of the above. We're called to represent our faith and our Father and the freedom found within that relationship and the growing process of sanctification that He's so graciously offered to lead us through.

But how can we say we're growing in Christ when we're still acting like a bunch of silly kids pretending that we're superheroes?

In short, we can't. We can't serve Him while we're still serving this world's demand to never show weakness. We can't honor Him by pretending that we're above reproach and therefore without need of His salvation. We cannot glorify Him if we're still spending any amount of time seeking to glorify ourselves in the eyes of a fallen humanity that insists on everyone pretending they're perfectly immune to mistake or flaw.

As we've been discussing, it's through our struggles and strife that our faith is made manifest in ways that clearly display the grace and power of our Savior. It's our weaknesses that reveal His strength. It's our wounds that leave the scars that tell the story of everything that tried to undermine His provision, and His ongoing healing that refuses to allow us to crumble and fail.

Personally, I love how Paul puts it in 1 Timothy 1:16, “But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.” We are His followers. We are His patients. We are His evidence. We are His examples, and it is our flaws, our weaknesses, our sins and mistakes and rampant stupidity that stand as a testament to the saving power of His endless grace.

And so, as long as we tell this selfish story of our immunity to imperfection, we'll be unable to speak to the things from which Christ has saved us. If we insist on playing this worldly game of pretending we're without weakness, then all we're saying is that our own strength is enough. And if we keep telling the world that human strength can in fact be enough to render us holy in God's eyes, then we are a very clear part of the problem and nowhere near being a part of the solution.

My friends, He calls us to be honest. To be bearers of truth. To be willing to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice through which He can display His might, His mercy, His miraculous healing, His magnificent glory. As much as we've long opted to pretend otherwise, our true role in this story is as examples of what He can do, not what we've managed to accomplish on our own. And friends, bearing our weaknesses, even going so far as to "boast all the more gladly" about those weaknesses is in fact the only way to truly testify to who He is and what He's done.

But instead, I fear that we tend to look at our lives as these crumbling piers stretching out into the unknowns toward which we know we cannot reach. We fear our weaknesses glaring forth and proving to everyone that we’re not able, not capable, nor in any way equipped to hold anything together. But rather than the weakness displayed by our prior collapses being evidence of our inability and lack of worth, the fact that we are indeed still standing stands as a very clear testimony to the lengths in which Christ will go to keep us standing so that we can continue serving His will through what is most obviously His strength alone.

All those things we've tried so hard for so long to hide so deep under this image of strength and ability are the very building blocks of our testimony that we are called, and in all honesty should be ecstatic to share with everyone around us. The scars tell the story of His healing. Our weaknesses reveal how His strength made up for our inability. Our failures speak to His grace helping us back up so many times. Our sins, yes, even our miserable errors are evidence of His salvation, because if we hadn't messed up, He wouldn't have died to save us.

So from is it that we're hiding? Guilt? Shame? Regret? Those should all be a fading part of who we once were. Is it is embarrassment? Humiliation? Fear of not being enough in the eyes of those around us? If that's the case, then why is that we continue giving mankind so much consideration in how we live our lives, and therefore, how we display our faith? Why is it that we remain at all worried about what anyone else may think?

Are we not here to serve Christ alone?

Well, we ought to be. But to say that mindset is one of increasing commonality is rather a lengthy stretch. In truth, if we give any thought whatsoever to what any other human may think of us, then we're most obviously still learning to let go because the only opinion that carries any weight in the court of eternity is that of God alone. And so our ongoing willingness to appease humanity through the covering up of our weaknesses only shows that we still feel this need to be accepted.

And I think that's likely the biggest take away here. If we truly believe that we have been accepted by God through Christ's sacrifice and our corresponding continual repentance, then why do we need anyone else's approval? If we honestly believe that God knows every breath we've breathed and every word we've spoken and every time we've failed, then what is it that we're attempting to hide? Or rather, why is it that we're attempting to hide?

There's literally only one reason, and that's that we don't want to disappoint those around us. We don't want to be seen as weak in a world that idolizes self-strength. We don't want to seem needy by telling the world that we be in need of Christ's undeserved mercy. But all this worry about not letting anyone down is in fact causing us to let Him down, because again, we cannot serve Him if we're unwilling to display the work He's done in our lives.

Friends, the honest fact is that we all struggle. We all get angry. We all mess up and do some incredibly idiotic things. To err is human, but to hide it is stupid. Our errors are our evidence of His existence. Our flaws form the foundation of the freedom found in His forgiveness. And our weaknesses testify to His strength as they only show that we can't do what's been done in our lives by ourselves.

Considering what's at stake and how quickly things are unravelling, may we all simply embrace the chance to let His power rest on us through our willingness to speak to the weaknesses that He has begun helping us solidify. In truth, being weak isn't anything to be ashamed of. Rather, it's the being ashamed of our weaknesses to the point of pretending they don't exist that is what's truly shameful. Because nobody grows, nobody learns, nobody improves without admitting that they need to.

And it's in our admitting that He has helped us learn and grow and improve and change and heal that we speak the loudest about His ability to be everything none of us could ever possibly be on our own.

Sure, we may be crooked, warped, raggedy and highly unreliable at times. We might be considered largely unstable by those who foolishly think they know of a stability outside of His providence. We might lean more noticeably than some. We may stumble more often than not. We might even fail, fall short, and look foolish to a world that pretends to be above such imperfection. But the fact is that we are still standing.

And the only reason that we are indeed still standing is that we are standing upon the Rock that is our Savior. And it is most certainly by His strength and provision alone that we can continue to stand. His grace most assuredly is sufficient, and it’s time we make that known to those who too are in need of that grace. And last I checked, that’s all of us.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold