When the Rubber Meets the Road

 

(Photo from techpinions.com)

     I've always placed great stock in the old adage "actions speak louder than words."  How many times have we heard people spout wise words of advice only to turn around and contradict what they had spoken?  It's not terribly convincing.  The speaking is easy; the doing is difficult.  This is the ever-present opportunity and challenge in the life of a Christian.  Great conviction or words of praise lifted up to honor God are beautiful, but we must always be working in partnership with Christ in allowing Him to match the way we conduct ourselves with our identity as His son or daughter.  This is the path of sanctification that believers travel.  If I try to do it alone, I find myself completely inept and helpless, for that is what I am, a sinful human being from the time I was born.  In my twenty-five years of life, I've done quite a job of showing my own human depravity, but praise God that He has given me a great gift.  Jesus came to live the perfect life and to pay the penalty for my every sin that I may be made right in His Father's eyes.  It simply blows my mind and makes my heart overflow with thankfulness that my Savior has given me the gift of being made right with my Creator and Lord.  I recognize that I don't deserve it even for a second, but I embrace it wholeheartedly because it's clear that we cannot ever earn it.  It is a truly incredible gift.  Day by day, I let my heart be forever grateful to my Jesus and focus on the work that He is actively doing in me.  I love how in Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis describes this lifelong process of becoming more and more reflective of Christ.  He writes, "It is not a question of a good man who died two thousand years ago.  It is a living Man, still as much a man as you, and still as much God as He was when He created the world, really coming and interfering with your very self; killing the old natural self in you and replacing it with the kind of self He has." 

     If then I am partnering with Christ in this process, I must put my money where my mouth is.  It's easy to do so when things are going as one has planned, but how do we react when the rubber meets the road?  Take for example the lyrics of a beautiful, old hymn.  I surrender all.  I surrender all.  All to thee my precious Savior, I surrender all.  Surrender seems a flawless process when my path and God's path for my life are synonymous.  When a trial or difficulty is placed before a believer, though, the hardship offers such a richness of opportunity to be real and raw in one's reliance on Him.  If I believe that God is good as I know Him to be and I submit to His will for my life, then I must let Him keep shaping my heart and my focus on Him.  I rejoice in the work He is doing in my life daily whether it may seem easy or difficult.  I desire for my attitude and actions in all circumstances both joyous or painful to proclaim what the the apostle Paul so aptly wrote.  But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.  (2 Corinthians 12: 9-10)  This may seem counter-intuitive to some, but it makes perfect sense!  Whatever the day, whatever the challenges we may face, may He forever shape my perception to recognize that every step in my relationship with Him gives an opportunity to bring glory to His name.  When I am weak, Christ is strong and can shine all the more brightly in my life.  It's not about me.  It's not about you.  It's about Him!  That's the truth when the rubber meets the road, and side by side with Him, that's the road I'll confidently drive on.