Adequacy and Authenticity

I had a great conversation with a friend today. It followed a great sermon at my church. Matt, who delivered the sermon today, discussed how we behave in certain ways to try and get others to authenticate our faith. We use certain language or wear certain clothing or do certain things, etc, to try to fit in with others who do/say/wear those things that they will say we are Christians.

Matt used the Pharisees as his example (in Matthew 23:1-12). The Pharisees were always interpreting their version of following God and then putting it on other people - and if you behaved in those ways, then you were OK. If you didn't behave in those ways then you were "out" (as Heidi Klum would say). We do the same thing in our Chrsitian life - we find these pastors or authors that seem to have it all figured out and try to follow all they say so that we can say "I did it! Everyone will know I'm a Christian now."

Matt didn't use this verse, but I thought of it during his talk. Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching you are really my disciples, then you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free." But he also said, "If you love one another, then all people will know that you are my disciples." So somewhere in here we've gotten off track and its no longer about loving God and
people but more about "being" or "doing" something that qualifies us.

So then I was talking to my friend today on the phone. We were talking about how easy it is, when we feel inadequate to follow God, to fall back into our old life and patterns. And then we prove to ourselves that we are indeed inadequate. And the case is closed.

Except that its a lie.

Well, its not really a lie - we are inadequate. But God is not. "God is able to do more than we ask or imagine," and frankly, I can imagine a lot of things so God is pretty amazing to do more than that.

Her question, "Doesn't it ever get easier {to follow God}?"
My answer, "well, actually... no."

The analogy we used in our conversation was climing a 14,000 foot peak. (Now, this metaphor may fall apart if you are a mountain climber, so bear with me and don't email me saying its not true - just listen for the idea, OK?!) Let's say that you were going to climb this 14k peak and you were going to climb 1,000 feet a day. Each day your muscles would get increasingly stronger, but the air would get increasingly thinner. So even though you are stronger, it is still hard each day. But following Jesus is like climbing a 14,000,000 foot peak.

A wise person once said that the closer we get to Jesus the further away we realize we are. The closer we get to him, the more we realize his holiness, his power, his love and his grace. And the more we realize these things, the more we see ourselves in stark contrast. The person who just met Jesus feels pretty low, but I would venture to guess that as they continue to know Jesus in a real way they may make changes in their life in those initial areas, but slowly the "little" areas (which I really think are the big areas) come into view - we move from our past of (we'll use this example) murder to our current behavior of slander, or whatever. And we realize that slander is like murder to God. He doesn't differentiate like us humans do between things that are "really" bad and things that are just a little bad. Jesus actually said, "if you look at a woman lustfully, you are committing adultery" - yikes.

So I know that I need help in these areas. I need to believe that God can do things through me, even though I fall - a lot. I need to remember that its not really about ME, but about God. And I need to remember that I am adequate because God has called me. Not that God called me because I was adequate.

And I need to remember that God authenticates my faith. I may live my Christianity different than a lot of people, in ways that people think are "good" or "bad" - but its not really about "good" and "bad" Christianity. There are a lot of different beliefs about what those descriptors mean. To some people a "bad" Christian is one who never reads their bible, or drinks occasionally, to others the "bad" Christian is one who is legalistic about those things.

I don't want to be a Christian in the eyes of my friends or family, but lose sight of the type of Christian God has called me to be.

I just want to follow Jesus and do as he tells me. I don't always know what that means, but I'm hoping to keep learning as I climb the peak with him.

here are books that speak to what I'm thinking about today:

Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard
We Would See Jesus by Roy Hession

Love to you today! Tiffani

faithful friends!

To my faithful friends. Please take one last opportunity to learn about the Kenya trip from this site: http://kenyahelpusgo.blogspot.com. From now on I'm back to updating here. I should be able to throw out an update later this week about my summer plans. :)

In the meantime.... check out this site for pics from the trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/tiffanibelle/KenyaMemoriesI

If you get time, check out these links to places/people we visited and worked with while in Kenya:
http://www.amaniafrica.org/ (women's ministry - amazing)
http://www.newlifehometrust.org/ (orphanages)
http://thecityharvest.org/ (the church we worked with)
http://www.journeytokenya.com/ (homepage for the Dellamaters)
http://lodges.safari.co.za/safari-lodge-sarova-mara-tented-camp.html (the site for the hotel we stay at, on safari)

Love! Tiffani