White Hat – Dirty Boots

Who I am and who I want to be are very different people and yet they are one. The reality of my life often does not remotely compare to the white-hatted hero of my dreams. I find myself up to my neck in the sludge of everyday living with my head soaring in the clouds experiencing the lightness of my dreams. My heart beats with idealism but my hands are scared with reality. 

My heart beats with idealism but my hands are scared with reality.

Perhaps this is what Paul was expressing when he said “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” Romans 7:18  Paul is talking about his inability to maintain his spiritual maturity; he had found he was not able to maintain perfection. This frustration was a result of his knowledge of Christ and his desire to be like Christ. God’s call to have the mind of Christ had become, not the source of joy and peace God intended, but a cloud of discouragement only allowing the rays of His Son’s glory to peak through enough to remind him that he hated the darkness.

God’s call to have the mind of Christ had become, not the source of joy and peace God intended, but a cloud of discouragement only allowing the rays of His Son’s glory to peak through enough to remind him that he hated the darkness.

We can learn a lot from God’s great servants, the mentor, Elijah and the protegee’, Elisha. As Elijah approached the end of his earthly journey, he offers to grant to Elisha a last request. Elisha immediately responds by saying he wanted to have a “double portion” of Elijah’s spirit. Elisha was asking for a double portion of that spirit which allowed Elijah to stand before the prophets of Baal and declare the superior power of God. Elisha wanted a double portion of Elijah’s spirit that called upon God to stop the rain for 3 years. This is what Elisha wanted, but it is not what he asked for. His request was for a double portion of his mentor’s spirit.

I wonder if he also received a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, which caused him to huddle in darkness of a cave and plead that he would just die. Or the spirit, which caused Elijah to run from the evil Jezebel’s death threats. At least when Paul expressed the idea of someone wanting to be like him, he said they should only be like him when he is like Christ.

A desire to reach the level of spiritual development we observe in others can be commendable, but it can also cause us to experience a great sense of loss. This sense of loss is a result of our failure to season our idealistic view of other’s spirituality with healthy realization of their humanity.

Words are powerful tools equally capable of raising one up or razing one down. Words move ideas toward reality. Words stir warm feelings of companionship and admiration into the flame of passion and love. Words can turn smoldering anger into a raging inferno of hate. Words create visions in our minds that can become realities in our hands.

Words create visions in our minds that can become realities in our hands.

Who can hear these words from Isaiah 40 without feeling the wind as it blows across the eagle’s wings? “He shall renew your strength and you will soar as eagles.” Surely God’s words of encouragement lift us even if it is ever so slightly we are lifted off the ground of frustration. When grounded by the pressure of the world we eagerly seek to escape; we seek relief from our fatigue by reaching out to God’s word for encouragement only to be left wondering why we can’t be spiritual enough not to become “weary in well doing”. Galatians 6:9

We are told that worship is to be a time of encouragement. We go prepared to gain strength from and give strength to our fellow believers. We find ourselves walking in just in time to hear the preacher say, “You may come as we stand and sing.” How can our mind drift to unpaid bills as we write a check to the one who paid it all? How can a sweet bundle of joy, wrapped in grandma’s blanket, demand more attention than a God child wrapped in swaddling cloths?

How can a sweet bundle of joy, wrapped in grandma’s blanket, demand more attention than a God child wrapped in swaddling cloths?

As some observe these apparent contradictions they assume personal failure. These discrepancies may lead to a lost faith in the spiritual promises God has so eloquently expressed in His Word. There are those who allow temporary failures to doom them to complacency, mediocrity and spiritual abandonment. Rather than to continue to struggle, they lower their self-expectations to a more easily attainable standard.

We must understand that perfection is not to be obtained; it is to be pursued. It is by the act of pursuit that we lift ourselves to a higher plane. Those who are building on their dreams of spiritual maturity may never find themselves sinless, but they will most assuredly find that they sin less. 

Those who are building on their dreams of spiritual maturity may never find themselves sinless, but they will most assuredly find that they sin less. 

Pursuing spiritual adulthood allows one to find a relationship with Christ, a relationship that secures spiritual maturity in Christ. It is in my desire to mature, my willingness to pursue perfection, my commitment to strive that I find myself in a relationship with Jesus that allows Him to build the bridge to fill the gap between my humanity and His spirituality. It is not my perfection that I reply upon but His.

Paul said, “Forgetting these things which are passed” but this did not stop him from referring to himself as the “Chief of sinners” (I Timothy 1:15). Looking to our old life can serve as well when we realize how far the Lord has helped us progress.

Yes, it is discouraging to realize how imperfect we are but it is equally satisfying to realize how far the Lord has brought us toward the idealism He and we desire. I will stand before God (and do each day) imperfect. One who is on a journey toward maturity, one who stands before judgment made mature by the perfect One and made perfect by His perfect blood. It is a comfort to remember that salvation is not based upon my ability to achieve perfection but is upon my willingness to trust in the One who has already demonstrated perfection.

….Brother Dave