Hope for the Road

If you read yesterday's post, you might have walked away feeling overwhelmed, discouraged, or frustrated. It is inconceivable to imagine living like Jesus in our world today. At least, it is hard to believe that we could do it with any measure of true success. Every moment of every day it seems we are bombarded with messages that directly oppose the cross of Christ. Every day we have to choose to place our faith and trust in Him and not the promises of this world. And boy, it is not easy to make those choices, is it?

As difficult as it seems, it truly is possible. So today, I want to encourage you. There is nothing for you to be afraid of or ashamed of. Its ok to admit that you have failed. I want to make a proposition here that will hopefully give you strength and courage for the journey.

We do a greater disservice to the lost in this world when we act like we have it all together. It is better by far that we admit our failures and inability to live every moment as Jesus did than to put on a holy front and act like sin is repulsive and unknown to us.

You see, there are a whole lot of non-Christians out there who hate Christianity for one very legitimate reason: hypocrisy. They watch us enforce values that we ourselves struggle to uphold and judge the sins of others without admitting our own sinful ways. We seem to look down our noses to the lost and hurting rather than looking straight into their eyes.

Have you seen this? I have. And to be totally honest, I have at times seen that attitude in myself. But there is hope and joy and freedom and peace in realizing that we are the SAME as every single lost person out there!! The ONLY thing that separates us from them is Jesus. And we don't deserve to have Him on our side anyway. . . it is by grace that we are saved.

So how does this give us hope for the road? It means we can stop pretending. We can admit that we've fallen down, get back up, and start running again. We can feel the wind at our backs when we extend others the same grace we have received.

I truly believe that the more in love we are with Jesus the more capable we are of successfully waking like Him on this earth. But we have to drop the pretenses and pretending; we have to finally be honest.

Along the way, that honesty will do more than enable us to walk like Jesus did. It will soften and open the hearts of unbelievers to us. Rather than seeing righteous, self-centered Christians they will see followers of Jesus who are longing and striving to live rightly and fill this world with love and hope. . . followers who don't claim to be any more worthy than the person standing next to them. Just people who have found purpose, life, and forgiveness in someone who sees them as worthy because of Himself.

I am praying for you right now. . . praying that your heart is filled with a deep longing to know this man called Jesus; filled with a desire to model every moment of your life after His. It won't be an easy journey (He never promised that, after all), but it will be worth every drop of sweat and blood and every tear of frustration and discouragement.

Jesus believes that we can do it.

I, for one, am not about to doubt Him.

Off we go, then. Head held high, heart running wildly after Christ. . .