What do you do with a man who in his very act of love destroys? What do you do with a man who, in pursuance of Christ, constantly falls short of being like Christ? What do you do with a man who has one of the deadliest cases of pride – the silent, unobvious, slithering type? What do you do with a man who is aware of all of this? What do you do with a man who in his very act of love destroys? The answer…
Well, I do not know that there is an answer to the first and last question. Instead, it leads to the question of if it is truly love out of which he acts. As for the other questions, along with the first and last, the existence of this man is a true testament of how God’s grace and mercy works. Grace is receiving what one does not deserve. Mercy is having withheld what truly is deserved. This is the man who is truly flawed, and as he is aware of it, the contemplation on how to change these facts and the meditation on where he should be, is led to some un-uttered humbleness that may leave others concerned.
I am reminded of Jeremiah words in the eighteenth chapter about the parable of the potter. As he was instructed by the Lord to go observe how the potter molds the clay on the wheel, one receives a visual of how truly mighty the potter is to have all the power and how the clay remains surrendered, without significant resistance, compared to the potter’s strength. Having worked with clay, there is a known process that has a beginning and an end. While the clay is an inanimate object, if does give some resistance to being formed into its final cast. As the potter forms the clay, he may find some undesirable flaws that could lead him to start over. This is a process that can go for sometime, as the potter figures out exactly what is to be made of the lump of clay. Now imagine that potter is the sovereign God the Father.
In His perfect, holy, all-knowing existence, He knows what that clay lump will become. He is not one for practicing and starting over. He simply finishes the work He has begun to His Will. You and I are that clay. I am that man first described above. The picture of such a lump being molded, cast and at times, torn down to build back up again. One of my greatest trials in life has been knowing how to truly love without destroying. Having been loved and still being loved by Christ, I know what love is, but to this world, that love is sometimes foreign and unknown. There is so much literature and information available about how to love, yet we live in a time where love is little but known. So what do you do with a man who in his very act of love destroys? Does he truly know how to love?
Personally, there are friendships and relationships where I have gotten love right. However, there has been a few times where I have loved the wrong way. It is the kind of love that is overbearing, smothering, prideful and at times resulting in the martyr-syndrome as one of my best friends puts it. It is the kind of love that does not wait for the call to be enacted. It is the kind of love that jumps the gun. It is the kind of love that makes a zealot into a raging rebel with skewed focus of priorities. This is a tiring kind of love, and a hurtful type at that. The upside to this fact of my life is the sanctification process I engage every day. As the Lord has continued to call me (and all of His people) to holiness and to be consecrated, there are flaws that are being made right. My mother recently reminded me that God continues to show His love directly through people on this earth. We truly are the Body of Christ, meant to display and carry out His Will in loving one another and encouraging one another to greater in Christ. As we do this, it is so detrimental, as I am sadly realizing a little too late in the game for me, that we keep our focus on Him and not on what He is doing through us. Otherwise, as clay being molded up higher and higher, we can become the collapsing wall of what is meant to be such a beautiful creation that will be truly beautiful, but must be rebuilt to correct our weaknesses.
I believe I have been that collapsed wall for sometime and am now being rebuilt to what the Lord desires of me. Rest assured, anytime you are being shaped and molded in His hands, it is not all comfortable and happy-feeling. There is some unease and maybe a little resistance on our part to have that unyielding lump worked into the rest of what has already begun to take the right shape. However, just as a great potter knows how much water to apply to the piece to make it a smooth and quick process, so does God know how much discipline and pressure to enforce. We are all a work in progress and at times, a messy one. No matter how much we have messed up in this life and no matter how great our struggles and fights with sin may be, if we endure with Him, continue to trust Him despite how we feel, what we see or hear, and persevere in His Will, nothing will ever be able to separate us from His love. Salvation is ours!! May He continue to mold and perfect this man whom one may ask, “What to do with him?”
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Man may ask “What to do with him?”, but God knows you, start to finish. He created you, completing his work, and breathing life into you. From this point, you being a life journey, having the ability to make choices. God has a plan for each one and He knows the path each one will take and the end. Nothing catches God by surprise. but this is not always our case. Be warned that Satan has asked that he may sift them (every believer) as wheat, just as he did the disciples. Be warned that no one knows his own heart (Jer. 17:9) and that you can fail in the point of your greatest strenght. Peter was a brave man, but his courage failed him and he denied Jesus three times. (Luke 22:31-38); Abraham’s greatest strenght was his faith, and yet his faith failed him when he went down to Egypt and lied about Sarah (Gen. 12:10-13, 13:4); Mose’s strenght was in his meekness (Num. 12:3), yet he lost his temper, spoke rashly with his lips, and was not allowed to enter Canaan (Num. 20). “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12) You are clay in the potter’s hand and He is shaping, molding, sanctifying, and at time placing you in the fire to bring you to an expected hope and future. (Jer. 29:11-13)
So your question is “What to do with him?”. I say, “It’s a God and man journey”. There are lessons to learned. Failure is just another opportunity to try again. Get back up and try it again; Trusting in His Mercy to forgive you, His Grace to save you; His Love to call you His Own, and His Promise to never leave you nor forsake you.
God is Faithful.