Our family has been watching a tv series that is now on Netflix. I don’t really remember how long ago it aired on tv, because I never watched it. But the more episodes we view, the more memories I’ve been having of hearing people talk about the show when it originally aired.
The main thing I remember hearing was that the little boy doesn’t believe in God and his mom does. People criticized the show for this portion of the storyline…at least the people that I heard talk about it did. At the time I’d never seen it at all and had no real thoughts about it, but now that I have, I realize something.
They totally missed the forest for the trees.
Sure, the boy keeps saying he doesn’t believe in God, but he also has many instances when he draws on his mom’s faith. He even encourages her in her faith in one sweet episode. In that episode he admits that it makes sense to believe in intelligent design. He also admits, in another episode, that his mom had Jesus on her side in a certain situation, and that had to be considered. Over and over again I see solid references to the validity of faith. I also see the mom being real and working out her salvation. I actually find the show encouraging in this way.
You may be wondering why on earth I’m talking about a tv show. The answer is this…
How often do we miss the forest for the trees, ourselves?
Sometimes we miss great opportunities to share our faith or walk out troubles with others because we become hyper focused on the wrong things. Sometimes we miss opportunities because we deem them unholy, when they really are just opportunities to bring God into the bigger picture.
Our lives can be like a pendulum.
When I was living in the world, my pendulum swung waay over and I did a lot of really bad things. I was a hurting person, who hurt others…and myself…and sometimes I did that intentionally. Then I became surrendered to redemption and swung waay over the other way. I was concerned about every single thing, and it was exhausting, and I stopped enjoying life for a while. Until I eventually hit God’s grace and realized that my perfection was never the point, His is.
Jesus is the only perfect One. We will never achieve perfection.
No, this isn’t a license to sin, but it’s a license to get a grip. We need to open our eyes to ourselves and be real. Without Jesus none of us can be holy. He is holiness within us. I used to drive myself and my husband crazy trying to be the perfect Christian woman.
Now I just try to belong to Him. That’s easy to do. And from that standpoint, I respond to Him.
When He says no, then I respond. When He says yes, I respond. I let Him lead me to righteousness instead of me trying to create righteousness myself.
We aren’t saved by works, lest anyone boast…we are saved by Grace.
I wonder how this lesson could transform your daily life. Maybe it’s time to relax into God’s grace and allow Him to be the righteousness you so desire.
What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. There throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. But apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. Romans 3:9-22
365 Days in the Presence 