Jul. 31, 2008 - "...saved a wrench like me!...
My son was singing his own heart-felt version of "Amazing Grace" on the way home from my weekly Bible study tonight. The other seven people in our van could not convince him that he was a "wretch" and not a "wrench." He heard what he wanted to hear and he was stickin' to it! Oh well. What he lacked in accuracy, he made up for in enthusiasm.
I wonder if I'm not like that more often than I'd like to admit. You know what I mean, don't you? Dead wrong and stickin' to it. Ignoring the fact that there is something in my life that needs to be conformed to Jesus Christ, and trying like crazy to convince myself and those around me that I am, indeed, a "wrench" and not a "wretch." After all, I'm a good person by the world's standards. I live a moral life. I keep a (generally) clean house. I'm faithful to my husband. I go to church three times a week. I've never been in jail. I don't cheat on my taxes. Yeah, I make a pretty good wrench: useful, sturdy, unbending, practical to have around.
The one thing that keeps coming to mind, however, is that God doesn't call me to be just those things. Of course, out of obedience to Christ, my life should be lived by moral standards, don't get me wrong. It's not the outward show that is so difficult. It's the idea that God calls me to "bring every thought captive to Christ." He instructs us as true believers to die to self. Jesus tells me to take up my cross and follow him. This unimaginably HUGE God of creation is more concerned about the motive of my heart than the actions of my hands. If He weren't, He wouldn't have given the Pharisees such a hard time.
The chapter we studied this week in Lies Women Believe was about our circumstances and how God uses them to show us who we really are (that would be the "wretch" part), to teach us about His sufficient grace, and to conform us to the image of His Son. To be honest, I'm much more interested in comfort that conformity. (Do you know what it takes to bend a wrench?) The process is often painful, even though the results can be magnificent. How blessed I am to know that my Lord loves me enough to be interested in not only my conversion, but also in the refining process of remaking His image in me. Wow.
"Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind but now I see!
