Tuesday night I spoke at a graduation ceremony in Tifton Georgia. When I arrived several of the graduates were standing outside with their families and friends wearing bright blue gowns and caps with bright yellow gold tassels. They all had big smiles on their faces and were obviously delighted with their accomplishments.
It wasn’t an ordinary graduation and the people involved were no ordinary people; they were all convicted felons and were graduating from a state run day center program as part of the terms of their probation. The degree as best I could determine included a GED diploma, and completion of a drug and alcohol program where they had managed to remain clean, (drug free), and sober for a period of time.
While many might turn up their noses at these folks I felt it was a huge step in the right direction towards their finding a new way to live their lives. I told them that many had lived the first half of their lives similar to the way I’d lived mine, and I was hopeful that they’d put those mistakes behind them now and follow Jesus Christ instead of the world and dramatically improve the second half of their lives in similar fashion to mine.
As I recounted my story I could see on many of their faces that it was obvious that they didn’t actually believe that they could achieve similar success. Many ex-cons have very low self-esteem to the point that they all but refuse to even look someone they don’t know directly in the eyes. They view themselves as being abject failures and doomed to further failure. Trying to envision themselves as being highly successful is the impossible dream.
I was just like that. I didn’t believe for a minute that I could change my life. I felt I was condemned to failure and would never live to see thirty years old. I insisted to my nurse that the Bible was nothing but a lie when it said “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. I told her I could never be free from drug addiction, alcoholism, a life of crime, get a decent job, have a family, friends, or be happy.
She indignantly chewed me out and said that “God can do anything He wants”, and that He’d accomplished many things far more difficult than changing my sorry life including making the blind see, curing lepers, feeding the 5000, walking on water, and raising Lazarus from the dead and then she heatedly stomped out of my hospital room, angry that I’d interrupted her for such a dumb thing.
I ultimately found that it was far easier to believe in God’s power to change my life than my own power to do so. Surely He can do anything He wants, (just look at the splendor of a sunrise over Honey Lake if you need a little encouragement in that direction).
But then again why would He want to bother with a scum like me?
I can’t answer that question. In my mind I don’t deserve His love, but one thing sure, He loves me (and you) anyway, and He loves us far more than we can imagine. There can be no doubt about that when we think about Him willingly leaving His throne in heaven and subjecting Himself to the humiliation and horrific crucifixion on the cross in order that we might live. He didn’t have to do that. He did it because He loves us with a love that we cannot comprehend.
Unlike the people in this world God doesn’t look at outward appearances; He looks at the heart. In my case He saw beyond the shabby clothes, mean eyes, long hair, angry, bitter demeanor, bad attitude, low self-esteem, and black sins that I’d committed and on into the inner depths of my heart. He saw beyond what I currently was to what I could be, not only today, but 10,000 years from now.
Too bad we don’t follow his lead when evaluating those around us; the world would be a better place. Imagine if you judged everyone you encountered with love…Selah…
Doubting God is not reserved just for poor people and criminals. Even the empire builders, goody two shoes, and kings of the world have doubts concerning God’s power. Consider Daniel 5:5-6 where the Lord paid a little visit to King Belshazzar:
Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. Then the king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together.”
Yikes! There might be a little puddle on the floor if I saw this today…
“This is the inscription that was written:
‘mene, mene, tekel, parsin’”
“Here is what these words mean:
Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.”
We know the Lord loves us, but we also know the Lord is a Holy judge and we cannot live our lives without giving God a second thought as though there will be no consequence for our actions, (even if we are kings or empire builders),. God discerns our every thought. He forgives sin, but holds us accountable. We serve a loving, mighty, and fearful God. He is righteous in His judgment and that is why it is imperative to cloak ourselves in His Son’s blood sacrifice. – Selah
Isaiah 11:3-5
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.