March 25, 2014

AM Psalm 78:1-39; PM 78:40-72; Gen. 45:1-15; 1 Cor. 7:32-40; Mark 6:1-13

³⁵ They remembered that God was their rock,
   the Most High God their redeemer. 
³⁶ But they flattered him with their mouths;
   they lied to him with their tongues. 
³⁷ Their heart was not steadfast towards him;
   they were not true to his covenant. 
³⁸ Yet he, being compassionate,
   forgave their iniquity,
   and did not destroy them;
often he restrained his anger,
   and did not stir up all his wrath. 
³⁹ He remembered that they were but flesh,
   a wind that passes and does not come again.

Psalm 78:35-39 (NRSV)

I forget.  A lot.  And I mess up and let people down.  I do that a lot too.  I wish I didn’t, but I do.  I wish I had it all together and got it all right all the time, but I don’t.  I fail myself, others, and God.

 It’s my reality no matter how much I would like my reality to be otherwise.  No matter how much I try to be perfect and get it all right it simply never happens. No matter how much I beat myself up and try as I might to pull off perfection, I fail.  I would love to be perfect, but I realize that I will never be and that is ok.

It is ok because as we read in our psalm for today we aren’t any different from the Israelites, God’s chosen people, in our imperfections.  They messed up too.  A lot.  In spite of what God did for them in taking care of them and providing for them in their journey to the Promised Land they sinned against God.  They doubted God. They failed God.  And yet we read that God didn’t destroy them or give up on them no matter how many times they failed to live up to God’s perfect hope for them.  God forgave them and gave them another chance.  And another.  And another.  We read that God remembered as they messed up and let God down that “they were but flesh.” 

We begin Lent each year remembering that same thing as we mark ashen crosses on our foreheads and hear that we “are but dust and to dust we shall return.”  We are fallible.  We are broken.  We are imperfect.  We let God down.  We aren’t perfect Christians and yet God takes who and what we are and uses it no matter how imperfect it might be.

Before Lent began this year I posted a link on my Facebook page to this blog post (WARNING: There are some swear words in this post).  I shared this post from the blog, Redemption Pictures, because I think too often we believe that as Christians we have to have it all together.  We think we have to present to the world a view of ourselves that is perfect and other than we really are in all our imperfections.  Yet, the author writes, “The truth is, faith is ugly. Sometimes there’s more despair than hope. Sometimes we’re disappointed with God. Sometimes we’re disappointed with ourselves. Sometimes there’s nothing left to say but swear words.”

Our faith journey isn’t easy.  It isn’t perfect.  We aren’t perfect.  And yet when we mess up as we most certainly will over and over again, God picks us up, brushes our dusty selves off, and says to us, “Try again.”  So each day we get up and do just that.   We try again.  In all our imperfections and failings, we try again.  As we stumble along on this journey of faith and we offer up our imperfect selves for God to use, may we echo the blog’s author, Micah Murray, as he sums up his faith journey, “I’m stumbling in the direction of God, I think. I hope.”

Karen Safstrom