phony

So There’s That

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

It’s Thursday. And I’m having one of those days where I’m not feeling particularly creative. It happens to the best of us writers. And even me.

Let me ask you something. Do you ever find yourself talking and you hear the words coming out of your mouth and think, “I sound like the world’s biggest phony”?

For some reason, that happens when I’m talking about spiritual things. In the back of my mind, I’m thinking, “If they only knew some of the other things I think about.”

I’m thankful that that’s not how God sees me. He looks at me and sees Jesus. He looks at me and sees me as I’ll look when I look like Jesus. He can see past all my present mess to the finished product that I can’t even begin to see yet.

Even on those days when I feel like the biggest fraud of all and like I could take on the Apostle Paul for the title of World’s Worst Sinner, God still loves me as much as those days when I feel like I’m super-spiritual and have my theological t’s crossed and i’s dotted.

That’s something that will never get old for me. Well, two things. The love of God that never gives up and the grace of God that never fails to surprise me. Even after over 1,500 of these posts.

I’m also thankful that Jesus loves me the way He found me but refuses to leave me that way.

I’m also thankful for all those people who have been Jesus’ hands and feet to me through all these years.

And I’m thankful for my 14-year old cat who remains the laziest animal I have ever seen who actually has a pulse. Just don’t you dare tell her she’s not human.

So there’s that.

 

 

 

For All the Phonies in the World

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Let me ask you something. Just between you and me (and the world wide web). Do you ever feel like a phony?

Do you ever hear yourself giving Sunday School answers to real life questions? Do you ever feel that you’re praying what you think God wants to hear instead of what’s really in your heart? Do you ever lie awake at night wondering what would happen if the people around you knew what you were really thinking? What you were really like?

There’s good news that sounds like bad news at first. God knows. God knows it all. He knows all the faux-prayers and the religious jargon you talk sometimes. He knows what you do and what you think when no one’s watching. That seems like bad news until you get to the clincher. He loves you anyway.

He loves you at your phoniest. He loves you at your meanest. He loves you at your darkest moments in the middle of the night. He looks at you and doesn’t see phony. He looks at you and sees Jesus and what Jesus did in your place. He sees the perfect life Jesus lived instead of your own very imperfect existence.

Best of all, God sees you for who you will be instead of who you are. He sees what He designed you to be. He promised to not stop working on you until you’re 100% real and complete.

In the meantime, it’s okay to be real and honest and admit you have made a mess of your life. It’s okay to confess you don’t have all the answers, or even all the questions. It’s really not about how much you know or how well you act but how much you are loved.

I raise my glass and toast to all the phonies who are stepping forward to take off the mask and be honest about themselves. I drink to all the pretenders who just got real. I salute all of you who are letting down the walls on what God is doing in your life so others can see grace at work and how love can transform a person. That’s where the freedom is. That’s where I want to be. I hope you do, too.