Saturday, May 4, 2013 at 7:38pm
We have an unhealthy image of the disciples, and others I suppose, as being these perfect people who always did great things. In this quote, the writer characterizes the disciples of “never being hurried, always hitting the mark… why don’t i believe this? Maybe because it isn’t true. She goes on to say that we have the full measure of their life before us: “every bit of their life told”, but in retrospect, all we have is what is revealed by God as necessary or important to His story.
The good thing for us is that if that is God’s pattern, then we can be sure when He tells our story, He will only tell what is relevant to His story. Doesn’t mean that the story will be all peaches and cream – we see failures of God’s chosen all the time, yet we see them as not stinging displays of rebuke. Rather, we see them as opportunities for God to enter in and restore. In the end, David was the friend of God and best king of Israel; Abraham was the father of our faith; Moses the one who knew the ways of God; Peter, the rock upon which Jesus would build His church. The list goes on and on.
Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain:and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. (James 5:17-18 KJV)
Those we want to emulate are not picture perfect, they are people like you and me who allowed themselves to be used of God, and even that is a misnomer- God was allowed to flow through and over them to show His glory.
David said:
What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels,
and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands;
thou hast put all things under his feet: (Psalm 8:4-5 KJV)
When all is said and done, may it be said of me not that I was perfect or never sinned. Not that I never had a struggle or failure. But rather that in the cracks and flaws God found way to show His glory so that what was seen was not me, but the glory of God shining through.
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Good reminder… thank you!