Beggars Can't Be Choosers

     These past few weeks have been icy cold.  It's that kind of cold that cuts you to the core and makes you chilled to the bone.  It pulls at my heart to think of anyone without a home this winter forced to face the elements.  As I drove to meet a friend for coffee yesterday, I passed a man at a nearby exit ramp holding a cardboard sign.  As he hobbled along next to a line of cars, I can only imagine that he was asking, perhaps even begging, that those with would spare a bit for one without. Despite the physical comforts in my own life, it's humbling to realize that I once was a beggar myself and so were you.  In fact, some of you may still be in this condition without realizing it.  Before any Christian receives Christ as their Lord and Savior, that is in essence all we really are: beggars seeking to fill a deep need within.  We may search far and wide, within ourselves and with those around us, but we find ourselves continually empty-handed.  The things of this world simply do not satisfy.  But when you lay it all down at the cross surrendering your life, your desires, your everything to Christ, he fills our begging hands to overflowing.  We no longer need look elsewhere to fulfill our desires, hopes, and dreams for we know that His plans and path for our lives are leading us toward our greatest good in Him.

Although we can renounce our status as beggars and embrace our membership in God's own family, it's important to keep in mind from whence we came.  Beggars can't be choosers the old adage says, and yet I'm sorry to say that I myself and many other believers can become quite choosy and selective in their walk of faith.  Many will seek to conform God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit to their own image, to place God into a small mold or box.  Be wary of such an attitude, for we were made in His image and not the other way around.  We are a mere reflection of His awesome glory.  He is so much greater, so much more powerful, so much more holy and awe inspiring than I can even fathom or understand.  I'm also embarrassed to admit my own failings in often looking to the ideas of popular Christian authors, artists, bloggers, and tweets to inform my own doctrine.  Although other believers can teach us much about God and spur us on in our faith and learning, it's sad to realize how many Christians find these sources more trustworthy and credible than God's own Word.  When I hear someone say, "I'm a Christian but...... (insert some teaching or truth that they aren't willing to go along with)" a red flag goes up that he or she is getting choosy.  The path which Christ offers us is grace filled and a free gift, but it's not a grab bag to be filled with the parts we like best.  In His teachings, Jesus never minced words to the crowds that gathered around Him.  He made it clear that He offered the path of everlasting life, but He made it equally evident that it required absolute surrender.  Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for me will save it... (Luke 9:23-24).

So this is a challenge for myself as I seek to feed my appetite to grow in the depth of my knowledge of Christ.  May I lay down my life, my agenda, and my will to pick up His cross daily.  May I remember that I am no longer a beggar, but I also can't allow myself to become a chooser.  May I not listen to the voices around me or the sinful nature within that tempts me to make less of my Savior to fit what is comfortable or convenient.  Instead, may my mind be challenged and moldable to be reshaped by His teachings.  And lastly, may the basis for my knowledge and truths be first and foremost based in study of His own inspired and all-sufficient Word.  Beggars can't be choosers.  The only thing I choose is to be neither but to simply be His.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119:105)