One thing that amazes me, the longer I live as a Christ-follower, is the unpredictable way of humans as they interact with Jesus.
- Some who appear to start out burning bright for Jesus– fall away and disassociate themselves from Him and His people.
- Some who seem weak and needy persevere and the light of their light grows more brilliant and visible..
- Some who seemed strong are humbled as they follow the Lord through deep suffering.
- Some come out of nowhere and challenge me in the way they cling to Jesus as Savior
- Some who seemed genuine or noteworthy are proven fraudulent.
- Others, maligned or humiliated (by gossip, or by their own decisions), go on loving Jesus and His people, despite their apparent “ruining.”
And I’m not always able to tell who’s who– it’s caught me off guard along the way.
- Sometimes the discipling woman who diligently studied the Scriptures walks away from her family.
- Sometimes the gal with nose ring and tattoos is the most like Jesus.
- Sometimes the gregarious man at church serving in visible ways is the least like Jesus.
- Sometimes the 50-something woman you barely notice prays with fiery boldness.
- Sometimes the platformed person whose life looks the most prettied-up and “follow-worthy” is actually joyless, shallow, and falling-apart.
- Some who claim Christ are actually Pharisees.
- Some who look like legalistic rule-followers are actually leaning solely on Grace.
What we see on the outside doesn’t tell what’s on the inside.
Things aren’t always what they seem.
CONFIDENT IN THE LORD ALONE
Thus, the older I get, and the more I know what’s going on on the inside of me, and the more I see what comes out of others, the more I am certain that it is only the Lord who can keep me on the path.
A heap of knowledge, particular family lineage, “right”-sounding words, or seemingly-good decisions– none of these mean we are following Christ. Many who have the “right” outward appearance, or who gain acclaim and notice, don’t seem to be following Jesus at all.
My confidence is in the Lord alone— not myself and not other humans.
I am leaning in and betting my whole life on it.
He is strong enough.
He will keep me.
BUT AT THE SAME TIME, OTHERS NEED ME, & I NEED OTHERS.
The more I see the great unreliability of every human, the more I desire to strengthen the Body of Christ around me. We are each so weak! We need the Word! We need the Body! We can not thrive in isolation or self-reliance.
Embers that pop away from the raging fire are soon cold.
We need to be strengthened by one another.
Some ways I’m currently pursuing perseverance and confidence in God alone are by:
- eschewing self-reliance
- making myself small
- acknowledging my own weakness, and seeking help where I need it
- refusing to blindly “stan” for anyone else– because all humans are weak and needy
- knitting myself to others who are truly following Jesus.
This modern age consistently counsels: we should “lean in” and dance to whatever drumbeats we hear in our own hearts. Others encourage us to find & speak “our own truth” (even though their own version of “truth” keeps changing). Despite abundant evidence of human weakness, they say: “you’re strong enough.”
I say that’s all hooey.
Life is long,
but also,
life is short.
I wanna keep on keeping on. I don’t want to sit in constant perplexity and anger at the actions of wicked people. I don’t wanna get pulled away from the trail of Jesus by distractions of pleasure, perfection, or pride.
The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday.
Proverbs 4:18
It’s important who we follow, and who we walk beside.
And the only hiker that doesn’t get lost on the trail of life is Jesus.
He’s is the only one worthy of an absolute “follow.”
The only way I’m gonna make it through this life (and, I’d submit, Christian: the only way you’re gonna make it through this life) is walking close to Jesus.
For further discussion, I’d love to hear your thoughts on any/all of these:
- How are you personally abiding in Christ?
- What are the most important decisions you’ve made in regard to growing in your faith?
- The more you have seen the wickedness and weakness of others, how have you kept yourself from bitterness and hopelessness?
Hi Jess! As you may remember I am a Catholic and in our church we make it a priority to help others(ah, such is faith in works ;)). So to me the hardest thing is to conquer my introversion and shyness and just knock on that door to offer my help to neighbours or elderly people, to take time to call a friend going through a rough time or babysitting a kid to help out a divorcing mother. I still say no to often out of shyness and awkwardness but I hope that leaving that confort zone will help in time. Any advice on not feeling like such a fraud when you come to help out?
Hmm, I guess I would want to investigate what is it that makes me feel fraudulent, and dig deeper into that. Once I knew my own thinking then I’d be in a better position to counsel my own heart with the truth of who I am in Jesus & why I should, and why I want to, do this thing I’m about to do.
To your third inquiry:
Living with a horse-blinder kind of focus has helped me stay the course and not grow bitter. In real-time relationships , assuming that what I see before me is true and genuine. If what I’m seeing is bad, assuming the best of that person and showing the understanding I want shown on my off days. Taking note of patterns and being a contented, happy person with varying degrees of friendship with people.
For people who are prominent leaders whom I do not personally know, again putting those horse-blinders on and being on guard to jumping ship on the refining God wants to do in my life to spend gobs of time and thought on what they should have done. Every time I do this (and I have!!) I get this eery feeling that the Enemy is taking my distraction as an opportunity to hurt fruit on my own tree. So trying to get back to my own course as soon as is mentally possible.
Loved hearing from you!
This is great, thanks for digging in & sharing from what you’ve learned. It’s a good warning!
Coming back to this: “trying to get back to my own course as soon as is mentally possible.” —
It reminds me of the saying “keep your eyes on your own paper.”
And also called to mind this, from 1 Thessalonians 4: “we encourage you, brothers and sisters, to do this even more, to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.”
Hi Jess, I love what you wrote as usual. The “making myself small” piece has been resonating with me and I’m wondering if you would just expand on that. What do you mean? Why and how do that? Thanks from (another) Jess 😉
It’s a good question.
So as a pastor’s wife, for many years I had a very visible role and also (gratefully) a very deep role in many people’s lives. For the past 3 years, however, we’ve participated in church in a much less visible way (serving in nursery, showing up regularly but not being in a visible leadership position). And it’s been a delight in many ways. One significant way is that it’s been good to make me evaluate my attitude toward service, my heart in serving, and just learn to be a “small” nobody who shows up, and just finds a need and fits into it, if that makes sense.
One angle is decluttering my life. Not having so many Facebook “friends” that I can’t remember who they are. Not having so many social media apps that it keeps me staring at devices all day. Not having my schedule so full that I’m weary and crabby. Not doing everything that seems “best” and instead choosing the core things we will invest ourselves in and being content with those things, and whatever else God clearly gives us besides that. Just decluttering our life, our home, our friendships, our time, our commitments. Simplifying it down to the essentials rather than ending up with my whole life being larger than I can handle.
Another angle on this is my perspective from backpacking. Some people talk about it from a “conservation/earth-friendly” angle… learning to keep my footprint small. From the backpacking perspective, it’s about being careful about how many things, and how large of things, I am going to take responsibility for, as well as making sure that I don’t overload myself, so that I am walking in a sustainable way over the long-haul, and so that things don’t get inadvertently lost, if that makes sense. Not that I am forever going to be doing the exact same things I’m doing now, but, considering Qs like:
* “can I sustain this pace?”
* “Am I going to burnout and blow up my life if one large unexpected thing happens to me?”
* “Am I trying to do too many things and thus being a poor steward of many/all of them?”
* “Is this load larger than my shoulders were made for?”
* “Am I forgetting that only God can handle all the world’s problems and dilemmas, and trying to act as if I am Him when I am not?”
For my part, getting older, and especially having been in a visible/up-front role, it’s been good to just intentionally make my footprint smaller for now.
Does that help clarify my intent?
Love what you have to say here – thanks!