Yesterday I started reading 'Crazy Love' by Francis Chan. I've heard great things about this book, so my expectations were pretty high. I made it through the first few chapters - it's good stuff. I was totally tracking with him, and was pretty excited, until I came to chapter four, which is titled 'Profile of the Lukewarm'. In this chapter, Chan gives a series of 'you might be a lukewarm Christian if...' statements. I made it through the first few unscathed, but the list seemed to never end, and by the time it did end, I had some thinking to do. And I have more to do, so we'll save that for another post.
What I wanted to think some more about tonight came from the first chapter of the book. Before you go any further, click here to watch a short video.
What I got out of this video was that God doesn't do anything halfway. The vastness of our galaxy and universe, in contrast to God's knowledge of every single person on earth is staggering. Additionally, the complexity of the system - how creation, in all its different aspects works exhibits God's ingenuity and perfect design. As I watched the video, I couldn't help but see how God didn't create something 'halfway', or something that 'would work'. God created an amazing world. And it didn't end there.
How is it that we so easily fall into the trap of thinking of ourselves of average? Not great? Mediocre? When we believe these lies, we not only sell ourselves short of a life that is much bigger, grander, larger than what we could imagine, but we also sell God short. God didn't create average, not great or mediocre. God created spectacular. God created phenomenal. And each of us, every person who has ever existed and ever will exist is a part of that. But I think first we have a couple of choices to make. The first, is that we have to choose to believe the things that God says about us. And not just believe it like 'oh yeah, it says that in the Bible', but believe it like LIVE IT OUT. That's the second choice: to live it out. It means taking risks. It means doing things that will probably make you really uncomfortable, to prove to yourself and God that the things God says about you are true. And it's a long road.
Psalm 139:14 says 'Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous - how well I know it'. Do you know it? Do you live that out?
God doesn't do mediocre.
I've been on this journey for a while. I am going to be on this journey for the rest of my life. I often fall into that trap of thinking that I'm not great, not spectacular. But other times I believe, and the more times I choose to believe, the less times I fall into that trap. The less times I fall into that trap, the more I am free to be the very best I can be, which is the me that God created me to be. It may not look phenomenal or spectacular to anyone else, it may even look like mediocrity to others, but to God, it is perfection.
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