Glory in the Mess
I don’t know about you, but when I think about my life glorifying God, I envision myself doing some pretty epic stuff. If I had to pick my character in the story of the Bible, I would choose Noah. Noah is talked about in Sunday School classes. Noah is mostly known as a hero, the one who had big faith, built an ark and saved mankind from the flood! No one talks much about Noah’s personal life, just his big accomplishments. I think if we’re honest, we would all choose the characters who are known as champions in the Bible. None of us would choose to be characters like Rahab.. Or, God forbid, Gomer.
But what about when your story literally is a reflection of Gomer’s? Your story isn’t told in Sunday School classes because it’s not palatable. You aren’t known as a hero or someone who had great faith and did all of these cool things. You’re remembered and widely known as unfaithful. You might as well be Hester Prynne. Yet God is still glorified in those stories.
The thing about God is he is after his glory, not ours. He is not glorified by us becoming big but by us becoming small so he can show how big, how vast, how deep, how wide, how redemptive his love is, and how worthy he is of glory. So often our desires to glorify God really aren’t about God being glorified as much as they are about us being glorified. “ I want to glorify God with my life as long as it’s not too uncomfortable. I want to glorify God with my life as long as it’s doing something BIG and noteworthy. I would rather be a hero rescuing children in a foreign country than quietly ministering to my own home because the later is not recognized as important or hero-worthy.” Sound familiar?
We want to glorify God with our lives as long as we still look cool doing so, as long as we aren’t humbled to the position of Gomer. Yet we are all Gomer in some way, shape or form.
God is glorified in our messes. God is glorified in our weakness. God is glorified in our brokenness. God is glorified when we’ve reached the end of ourselves. God is glorified in our most humbling moments. God is not glorified in us doing these cool and mighty Christian things but he is glorified when we let Him be the Hero that he is and rescue us. This is not to say that doing mighty things in the name of the Lord is bad. Rather it’s a call to examine our own motives and our own hearts. It’s to be reminded that in all of our shortcomings, he is still good, full of love and grace and always ready to rescue us from our failures. So let him do his job and rescue you. Don’t be afraid to be open and vulnerable about the things he has rescued you from or delivered you through. Give him the glory he deserves 👏👏 alright my preaching is over. Thanks for letting me take y’all to church!