Month: September 2019

My mom had one of those mom sayings – “There’s no ‘should’ about it.”  As a kid, I would kind of roll my eyes (well, I probably really did roll my eyes – sorry, Mom) when she said that and get on with whatever it was I was talking about.  I mean, everyone knows there are things you should do.

 

But I didn’t realize there’s an invisible transaction that takes place every time you accept a ‘should.’ Each one becomes another item on the list of requirements for perfection, and no matter how many of them you get right, there’s always another ‘should’ waiting just around the corner.

 

Perfection is an ever-heavier burden that you cannot bear.  It’s not possible for you to be perfect, and if you agree with the liar that you’re supposed to be, that people expect you to be, it will eventually crush you.  It will immobilize you. Stop you in your tracks. How many things have you left untried or unfinished because fear stopped you? Fear that you would look foolish and people might laugh, or fear you wouldn’t do it right and others would think you were a failure.  We keep carting around all that unfinished business, and it drags us down, holds us back, so we never make any progress.

 

Did you know there are over 600 commands in the Mosaic law?  That’s because holiness requires perfection. But all those commands make it clear that holiness is impossible without God.  We’re never going to get there on our own. Those who try get worn out and burned out on religion. What we need is a Savior, and He is Jesus Christ, the only perfect human who ever walked this earth.

 

Our imperfection is actually a good thing, because Jesus is the only One who can bring us into the Father’s presence (John 14:6).  And He said very clearly that the people He was escorting were “not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent” (Luke 5:32).  In other words, imperfect people who get it that the requirements of perfection are impossible for them to meet and who are looking for a way out.

 

God’s sure and undeserved favor and kindness is the only way out from under that burden (Ephesians 2:8).  When we rely on God’s grace rather than our own perfection, we get to drop the millstone of perfection and take up the silken mantle of grace.

 

“My yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”  Matthew 11:30

How did you get where you are today?

 

Maybe you know exactly how – you can look at the choices you made, the work you put in (or didn’t), the opportunities you seized and the ones you let pass by, and chart a clear path to your current position.  Or maybe you’re a bit bewildered by the journey. You thought you made the right choices, put in the work, said yes to good things and no to bad things, and yet you’re somewhere unexpected, maybe even somewhere unpleasant.

 

I was thinking about this the other day and Hebrews came to mind. Not the book of Hebrews, but the ancient Hebrews who were enslaved in Egypt and longing for deliverance. Then along came Moses with his cry, “Let my people go!” and suddenly they were packed up and headed into the wilderness.  Only their route wasn’t what they might have expected.

 

When Pharaoh finally let the people go, “God did not lead them on the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest way from Egypt to the Promised Land… [Instead] God led them along a route through the wilderness toward the Red Sea (Exodus 13:17-18).

 

It was God who led them to the Red Sea, to the place where they couldn’t go forward and they couldn’t go back because the Egyptian army was in hot pursuit. They didn’t wind up there by mistake. God had a purpose in bringing them there – “I have planned this so I will receive great glory” (Exodus 14:4).  He had a victory in mind that would firmly establish His superiority over the Egyptian gods, a lesson for both the Egyptians and the fledgling nation of Israel. The crossing of the Red Sea became a reminder for generations of God’s power and love exercised on their behalf.

 

So take heart. God has not brought you to this place to give up on you or throw up His hands and walk away. The obstacles in your way aren’t necessarily because you’ve taken the wrong path, but possibly because you’re on the right path.  Perhaps He is positioning you so that He can win a great victory, the kind of victory that only He can achieve. The kind that will put your enemies in their place and strengthen your confidence in Him.

 

With unfailing love you will lead this people whom you have ransomed. You will guide them in your strength to the place where your holiness dwells. Exodus 15:13