Mich Has Nothing to Say...

Michlow · #1 03-07-2007, 09:30 AM

I figured that it would be breaking of traditional to not have a "nothing to say" thread on this forum. (And we all know what a huge SIN it is to let go of traditions!!!

)

So here I am, for the 3rd time, announcing to the forum at large, the fact that I have nothing to say.

Now that I have your attention....

Michlow · #2 03-07-2007, 09:31 AM

“…we are all hypocrites in transition…”

I read those words earlier this week, and they seem to have taken up permanent residence in my mind. It is one of those phrases that when read reverberates wave upon wave of truth.

The moment I read them, I felt the reality of those words; and knew that they described something I had long known to be true. Something I was never able to formulate into conscious thought.

How many times have we heard people say: “The church is filled with hypocrites” or “You Christians are all hypocritical.”? And we are always left scrambling for some type of defense, and are left looking like a lawyer who shouts “objection” because the prosecution just proved his client guilty.

How can we deny this hypocrisy that is all around and yet retain even an ounce of credibility? The truth is we can’t. It is undeniable. We are all hypocrites.

There is not one among us who we can hold up as the ideal. Oh, we try. We chose someone we deem worthy, and place them high up on a pedestal. They are not like us, we think, they have arrived. They have this faith journey down pat. They can be counted on to “do the right thing”. And that gives us hope. For if they can achieve it, then so can we.

But in time the inevitable occurs, the pedestal cracks, and another is proven fallible. “What a hypocrite,” we think, “always preaching on love and yet look how they treated me.” So we look around for another to meet our expectation of super spirituality and the cycle continues. Some after continual disappointment will eventually be led to the conclusion that the claims of the bitter detractors are correct; all Christians are hypocrites.

For too many this ushers in a loss of hope leading to the abandonment of the faith. “I should have gotten this by now”, we think, and “What’s wrong with me that I’m still so flawed?” But in reality, this knowledge brings us to the birthplace of true understanding. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This applies not only to the lost, but to the saved as well. But like Paul said, we need to press on towards the goal; the goal of becoming like Jesus; a goal which will never be fully attained on this earth. And that is why we will always be: “…hypocrites in transition…”