Why Not Get Your Glory From God?

In an astounding number of ways, the Fall has made monkeys of us all.  Even we who’ve been rescued out of it still seem to find a plenitude of paths right back into a cosmic culture.  Like chimps in a cable commercial come to life, we’re running around trying to get the other ‘walking wounded’ to clap for us, trying to manipulate the masses into proclaiming us ‘normal,’ or ‘healthy,’ or ‘beautiful’ or ‘brilliant.’  There’s nothing wrong with any of those things, but those are gifts in life— extras in the scene and not the scene itself.  They are not the means of redemption the world would like us to believe.

One writer put it this way.  “What we commonly think of as love is really the desire to be loved,” which is universal, and entirely natural.  In fact, it’s hardwired into us by our Creator.  This is true for the majority of us and has been most our lives.  When we want others to like us, what we’re really wanting them to say is, “You know, you’ve got a pretty good act.  You’re not really a loser after all.  You get to stay in the lifeboat.”  Consider the enormous weight of having to decide who gets to stay in the lifeboat and who has to go, who gets to live and who has to die.  There’s a section of Scripture in Galatians 5:19-21 which sums up rather effectively the ruthlessness and resentment of this fallen world’s ‘lifeboat mentality.’  Here’s how it sounds in The Message:

“It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community.  I could go on.”

What you and I must know in the here and now is that a life lived at the opposite end of this sinful spectrum {a life of merciful love and redeeming grace} can only take place inside a real relationship with Abba, one full of passion and intimacy.  For He is the Father who cares for all our needs, and who has the power to tell us who we truly are if we would only trust Him enough to let Him do it.

Imagine how radically a man or woman’s life would be changed if they trusted deeply that they were loved by God, their final Father.  She “could interact with the poor,” the dirty and the downtrodden, and “not show partiality;” she could love her husband freely and respect him at the same time because the validation of her soul would flow through Jesus and not him; she could be slow to anger, to resentment, and to nurse the bottle of bitterness because her image in the eyes of others was no longer at stake {i.e., all fear of being tossed from the lifeboat would be gone for good: nothing left to prove}; she “could be wise” like Abigail— giving and gracious with her money and resources because materiel no longer represents points in the game of life.  She “could give up on formulaic religion, knowing that checking stuff off a spiritual ‘to-do’ list was a worthless pursuit.”  She “would have the confidence” to laugh at herself, and she could love others “without expecting anything in return.”  This would be an indescribably beautiful woman, or an amazingly attractive man.

There is phenomenal freedom in this process of purification from a life stained by the ‘soil of self.’  It’s the freedom which comes from an ongoing redemption, as our hearts are healed, our souls restored, by the validation we received from God— the affirmation and affection of Abba— and not from man.  Donald Miller describes it this way:

“Jesus is saying, ‘Look, you guys are running around like monkeys trying to get people to clap, but people are fallen, they are separated from God, so they have no idea what is good or bad, worthy to be judged or set free, beautiful or ugly to begin with.  Why not get your glory from God?  Why not accept your” sense of identity “because of His pleasure in you, not the fickle and empty favor of man?  And only then will you know who you are, and only then will you have true, uninhibited relationships with others.”1  {Italics Mine}

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
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