My New Years resolution…I’m just going to try and be a foot.
Recently, a couple people who I’ve really looked up to have let me down. Men of knowledge, character, integrity and position.
Some of the things that have happened have left me disappointed, angry…and feeling a bit betrayed and misled. But I’ve come to the conclusion that the affect it’s had on me is really my fault…not theirs. After all, they were just men, and you’d think in my 40 trips around the sun I’d have learned by now that if their is one thing that people have in common is that they will fail you. Heck, if I had a nickle for every person whose expectations of me I did not live up to I’d have $10,334.85 (roughly).
Psalms 118:8 says “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put your confidence in man“…kinda odd that this verse is a the very center of the bible…literally. 594 Chapters before Psalms 118, 594 Chapters after. Not to mention that 594 and 594 equals…1118. Coincidence? Who knows except the author, all we can do is speculate. Regardless of the numerical fun, I think this one is pretty poignant, at least for me right now.
So many times I think people end up accidentally following man in an attempt to follow God. We see a pastor or prominent religious figure as a link between us and God, and in doing so we fail to apply discernment to their teachings. We put them on a pedestal, we make them the basis of our faith. And then when they fall short, we question our faith, since the foundation we chose has proven to be mortal.
So many times I think people end up following religion in an attempt to follow God. Serving God and following his plan for our lives gets lost in the process of serving our Church. We get it twisted and put the approval of our fellow religious folks as a priority in our decision making (Ironic when we consider the life of Jesus, I think). When feeling led in a particular direction, the first thing to cross our mind is what will folks around me think (I say “we”..because surely I’m not the only one…or am I?). We can begin to see advance and responsibility within our Church as validation that we doing the right thing. And many times, that’s exactly the point when our pride takes over…”Hey, look at ME, look what I’VE accomplished, lets see where I can get to next”…and we stray from God’s plan for our lives to our own.
Don’t get me wrong, I think that Pastors and Churches serve a very important part in our growth. The folks I mentioned in the first paragraph how given me WAY more than they have taken away…which makes my reaction to their “human-ness” even more irrational. I just think it’s time for me to focus more on God and less on those who men who represent him. I think it’s time for me to focus on true religion, as described in James 1:27:Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
So that’s my resolution for the new year…to rely more on following God and less on following man. To focus more on pleasing God and less on pleasing man. In the language of 1 Cor 12:12-27…when God needs me to be foot, don’t be mad when I turn down your urging to be a hand, an eye, or an ear. And I promise I’ll try and understand when I need you to be a foot like me but you insist on being a nose.
