Day 3049 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Job 8:9 NIV

Much of life is so often given over to this exhaustive pretense aimed at making ourselves seem something we are not, because we’re afraid to admit all that we are not.

It’s fear like that that does funny things to a person. For some, it inspires them to lie, to avoid the truth in this perceived effort of being able to somehow outrun it and therefore overcome its inevitability. For others, they hide and spend their time seeking a dimmer corner in which to do so in order to avoid that which speaks to their inadequacy. But for all of us, fear causes us to pretend that our limitations are not as hindering as they are.

Because we can't bear the reality that reminds that we're in no way enough to survive on our own.

So we set out in selfish search of all these stories that paint us the heroes and saviors who are endowed with enough might and merit and magnificence to withstand whatever volley may be launched our way. We make sure that we're always portrayed either in word or recollection or reflection as the image of endurance and intelligence that we've convinced ourselves to be, because it's not enough for us to be the only ones convinced of our grandeur.

We need our illusions confirmed by as many as possible so that those external opinions can stand as evidence that we've not just made up all that we know we’ve just made up.

And so we've become a world running from its shadow. We're a people afraid of the dark yet choosing that diminishing dimness every time we opt once more for sin's fleeting offer. We have indeed settled into this deeply carved rut of a pattern of life that's been repeated ad nauseam throughout the generations of people before who have also tried to pretend they had no limitations or weaknesses or insufficiencies only to fall into all of them once death proved unable to be outrun.

But much like the proverbial game of Russian roulette, what we'll find in the end of our self-induced streak of luck is a barrel full of truth we could never possibly outwit, much like every other human, save for a very slim few, have all eventually had to say.

As we've been discussing for several days now, we've sadly learned to loathe our inherent inability. We hate the very idea that we're not enough to gain the self-seeking glory we've long sought after. We can no longer compute the truth that tells us that we're destined for a grave, and so we just choose to keep our eyes fixed on the lies that have kept us distracted this long hoping that they'll somehow manage to come true like the wishes we know them to be.

But friends, life's not a magic lamp that we can cast our preferences upon with the arrogant expectation that He who runs this show will simply agree to our idea of how our story should go nor what our roles within it should look like. We can't keep running from dealing with who we are and all that it means we are not. We can try, but in the end, that same brick wall will meet us up ahead. So it’s just for us to decide how hard that collision will be.

Granted, we can keep putting it off as many in fact will. But that's the danger in a life spent pretending that we can control things or rewrite things or avoid the things that we know are going to be hard. At some point, our literal come to Jesus is coming, and no amount of arrogant attempt to avoid it or pretend otherwise can possibly prove successful.

No, we have to, at some point, come to terms with the fact that we know less than we've led on, we're of less strength than we often pretend, that our wisdom only sounds right to ears who themselves don't know the difference, and our best efforts will indeed fall so terrifyingly short that it's only our fears that will prove somewhat responsible.

And yet, it's those very fears which could and should inspire us to seek the only promised refuge we've been offered that are the very fears that instead serve as excuses we use to keep this charade running right on schedule.

What's to be gained by continuing to live life on the run knowing deep down we can never run far enough as life will inevitably prove circular rather than the linear hopes we've long assumed? How do we honestly expect to profit by insisting on this facade that has us looking acceptable, worthy, important, loved on the outside while the inside remains in shambles? How long do we honestly want to avoid the crash we know is coming?

Growing up, my parents always taught me that if I did something I shouldn't have, that being honest and admitting it was the only right thing to do in the wake of something wrong. Because to lie, to hide, to attempt to cover it up and expect to be successful in doing so only showed that I knew I was wrong, but that I was too weak to admit it. And that's what I think so many of us have learned to forget. That we do not become stronger by covering up the evidence that shows we're wrong.

We can only grow when we're honest about the pieces we have to work with. And just like any parent, God wants our honest attempts to grow instead of our arrogant portrayal of being someone who doesn't need to. Because, as much as we're happy living our lives in such selfish stagnation, allowing our faith to flounder is nothing but a slap in the face to He who did all He did for us to even have that hope that He's really willing to forgive all we've tried to pretend we've not done.

One of the most unfortunate turn of events in our lives spent living in such plain idiocy is that we ourselves have bought tickets to the show we're putting on. We're among those in the crowd cheering ourselves on in this clear display of insanity. We're clapping along as we dance along pretending everything is just fine. And all the while, reality boils just beneath our masks.

As we've just talked about, I understand that facing the truth when it comes to our limitations and inabilities is indeed a hard thing to do as it's something we've avoided having to do literally our entire lives. From the time we learn to talk, we learn to lie. From our first steps, our first attempts at sweeping things under the rug follows quickly behind. All because we're products a place that continues to pretend they don't need God's grace.

But again, what are we gaining by avoiding such a gift? Let's say it's your birthday and someone holds out to you this neatly wrapped box that they've filled with something that they’ve spent their time and consideration thinking about you in order to pick out knowing that you'd enjoy it. As they hand you that gift, do you run away screaming afraid that they're somehow tricking you into looking like a fool? No, we swell with excitement wondering about what's hidden just beneath the shiny paper we can see.

The same ought to be said about this gift of salvation we've been offered. It's about God taking His time and planning out a way to offer us something He knows we need, something He wants us to have, something that's given as only an expression of love. But we're so used to having to hide that we've grown accustomed to having to assume that the other person also has ulterior motives.

And so we cling to our fear of Him knowing we're undeserving of His impossible kindness, and we run back into the shadows leaving Him standing there with a gift we'd love to have, but are sadly unable to accept because we'd have to trust Him to be better than we are. We’d have to admit that He’s the bigger man in this scenario. And when we've painted ourselves into these magnificent beings free from flaw, we just can't help but doubt how anyone could possibly be better than our arrogance says we are.

Friends, why don't we stop playing around with something that's not a game? Do our weaknesses disappear simply because we pretend to be strong? Are we to be proven wise if we avoid learning the lessons hidden behind humility? Does it really matter what anyone else thinks when we’re the only ones who will be standing there before God someday? Do we think we’ll be more pleasing to Him if we spend our lives pretending we don’t need Him when we know He knows otherwise?

The fact is that if we never agree that we need Jesus is all that He says He is, then we'll never run into His arms hoping to find the mercy we know we don't deserve. We'll just keep running away assuming His mercy isn't there as we know that it shouldn't be.

That's what I hope everyone takes away from today's post. That we know nothing. Nothing. As we read here in Job, we're just infantile products of yesterday's lack of knowledge. We don't know half of what we claim to know. Don't know half of half. Why? Because we've spent our lives running away from the God who made us, who happens to be the very same God who defines truth and who ordained reality into being. And since we've always avoided Him, we know nothing of Him.

And if we know nothing of Him, how can we pretend to know how He loves or why Christ chose to do what He did or who is worthy of being good enough to receive such a sacrifice done in their behalf? Who are we to decide what's good when all our lives have been spent pretending we know anything?

We are but a shadow, and while that is terrifying as God could literally erase us in an instant, there are other truths in Scripture that speak of His endless benevolence. Psalm 78:39 tells us that "He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return." He knows our true condition, and the fact that He's not washed His hands of us yet proves who He is and how He loves.

Because we should have been long gone long ago as we bring nothing but trouble and turmoil to the table.

But, because He knows us better than we know ourselves, He knows just how fragile and fleeting our lives are. And yet, instead of crushing us into the oblivion our arrogant actions and asinine assumptions fully deserve, a fact our fears prove entirely, He chooses to offer us a gift we know we need. We just need to stop pretending that we don't know we need it.

It's true, we have nothing to offer God. We don't really even have anything to offer one another. But what we can offer to everyone, ourselves and our God included, is a humble willingness to step out of the shadows into the light of truth and walk the rest of this journey in honesty and meekness knowing that we've learned just enough about God to trust Him with our lives, as He's lovingly saw fit to not take them yet.

Folks, we're out of time. No more time to run away. No more ground we can afford to lose to the lies that have given us some warped sense of comfort so far. The time has come to accept the true standing of our inability to stand before the One we've only run from. The time has come to admit our limitations so that we can finally see that His grace is limitless. We can't learn that lesson any other way.

Many in this place will go right on pretending that they're of such high moral aptitude that Christ is all but an unnecessary idea which only needs to be considered or believed in by those so broken and destitute that they exist so far below their ivory towers that they cannot be seen, heard, or loved. But if we want to be seen, heard and loved, we have to first admit that we deserve none of the above.

Because for His grace to be received as a gift, we have to understand we cannot buy it with good deeds, pious speech, lavish lives or massive bank accounts. We can never be good enough to earn God's forgiveness. Because we were all born only yesterday and know nothing. We cannot possibly know enough to find a way to please a God we've never known. So we should probably stop playing a game we cannot win and simply accept the defeat that brings us into the victory He's already won.

All our arrogance is ever going to do is convince us that we're better than we are. How long we choose to buy that lie is up to us. But we can be certain that God's not buying it, because Christ wouldn't have hung in our place if it weren't our place to begin with. Our days here are wearing thin. Don't let your ego keep you assuming otherwise. Because doing so will only keep you from humbly buying a ticket on the only train out of here.

My point is that we’re not fooling anyone, least of all He who knows us better than we know ourselves as He’s seen the stupid things we’ve already forgotten. So maybe we should just step into honesty and build our lives there instead of this bed of lies we’ve been lying in. Because He’s a God of wisdom and truth and righteousness. And if all we ever do is pretend to be any of the above, we’re only making a mockery of the kindness He’s shown us.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold