Are You Like Me,
Practically Imperfect?
Good Morning Friends,
Often times I will send out these devotions and they will not be complete. I resolved it in my mind but run out of time to do it all. You see, there is something about these devotions that are always not quite right, but somehow that is what keeps them alive… The Navajos, in making rugs, always purposefully weave in a line so the pattern…the spirit… is not trapped. Maybe it has to do with the inherently disruptive role of faith and imagination. It does seem to change everything. Maybe there is a connection for us, for we too have been made with flaws. Are You Like Me,
Practically Imperfect?
Scripture: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
Ephesians 2:8 (ESV)
13For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Psalm 139:13 (NRSV)
See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
Isaiah 48:10 (NIV)
The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
Matthew 25:40 (NIV)
Message: By the year 2050 the world we live in will be significantly different from now. Not only will technological changes continue to occur, but the rate at which these changes happen will accelerate and is already accelerating. We are experiencing labor contractions before the birth. In addition, many new technologies will revolutionize the way we work, socialize and live our lives. So too today’s inferior alternatives may begin to flex their disruptive muscles and become the next big thing.
I liken it to the imperfect tense found in some languages. Here we are expressions of an ongoing, uncompleted action….a verb that has an effect on its surroundings. What I am trying to convey here is how our actions and imaginations can be unbounded by our concept of time and how this becomes disruptive. Friends, becoming a Christian is disruptive. You cannot just think this, one has to love it and live it…that is where the change occurs…where innovation is birthed. Sanctification…yes but more. You see, out of every adversity is an opportunity. In the face of the imperfect we meet Jesus. In these spaces of imperfection is where Jesus has done, is doing and will do His work. They come as a gift. For we are saved by Grace. Our imperfections are real, but in its place God’s light shines forth. Jesus saves us from being thrown away by covering our imperfection with His great joy, glory, mercy, suffering and grace. In this grace grows good works… a sign of our living faith…a disruptive devotion.
Pray we realize that mistakes are a way for us to understand the truth. Pray our mistakes are used to build a better future.
Pray we realize there is only one perfect person in the Bible. Pray we realize that God uses imperfect people every day. Pray we realize that I am not ok and you are not ok and that is ok. Pray we find God at work in places and lives of people filled with disorder and imperfection as well as in lives of people and places of order and beauty. Pray that in seeing God in unexpected places we are moved to compassion and find contentment in the love we received, are receiving and will receive. Pray God would use all of us. Pray our flaws would become features woven into an image of Christ and birthed anew in the Holy Spirit.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 