EQUIPPED IS GOOD
Last week’s devotional (“Good is Perfect”) captured was has been such a helpful truth for me through the years. And it’s one that puts us on a much more biblical, practical, realistic, foundation for life with God. See, God didn’t design us to be perfect, He designed us to be useful, “good” for His purposes. The question isn’t, “How can I be a better me this year?” It’s, “How can I be of more use to my Lord?”
We get hung up on “perfection.” But what is perfection? Perfection means, perfect in itself, lacking nothing. But only God is perfect in that way. Only God is self-contained perfection. And everything else—Everything Else—is only whatever it is with reference to Him. How did He design it? What are His purposes for it? What does He provide it with in order to accomplish His will?
And so God says, of creation, of land and sea, of animals, and of us, that they are (or can be) “good.” “Good” for… what God designed us for. And so, when we’re good—when we’re useful, functioning properly, operating according to the design specifications—then we’re what we’re supposed to be.
I’m reminded of the old preacher’s saying, “God prefers availability over ability.”
We are very interested in self-improvement. God is very interested in our willingness to serve: “uphold me with a willing spirit,” says the Psalmist (51:12). The Lord takes what we give Him—five loaves and two fish… learning disabilities, broken homes, hidden abuse, mistakes, failures, "personalities"—and He uses us to distribute the hope of the world.
“Thank goodness that The Big Man does his best work with our gratitude and not our accomplishment.” (Bryan J., 1.7.22: Another Week Ends)
This isn’t at all to say, “Just go be yourself.” Goodness no! We don’t have to be perfect, and so we can be good. But most of us, well, we aren’t that good. That is, we’re fairly selfish and self-involved. As I heard a preacher say, we “burn incense to our brokenness.” We coddle ourselves and give ourselves excuses for misbehavior. We’re mostly interested in what others can do for us, what God can do for us. We’re not interested in functioning properly per His designs, which would likely involve “loving our neighbors.” (And even “our enemies”! Egads!)
We’re not very good, and we’re not very interested in being good.
However, should that change (and it will if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is in you giving life to your mortal flesh, Rom 8:11), what has God given us to help us become “good”? What will the Spirit of Jesus use to fit us for service?
The Church.
Jesus gave us the church so that may be mended and become useful. (Eph 4:11-12)
The word “equip” in Ephesians 4:12 is a word that is elsewhere used to talk about repairing fishing nets. Fishing nets, like all useful-things, needed to be serviced regularly so that fish didn’t swim in, through, and out. Un-mended nets would be no “good.”
And that, Paul is saying in Ephesians 4, is like us when we come to Jesus. God loves us and all, but when we come to the church we come pretty raw. And what God has saved us for—to be “good” for His purposes—pretty much doesn’t happen. The fish, so to speak, swim in, through, and out (as fast as they can).
So God gives us to the church to be mended. So we can be good.
Let me encourage you, at the beginning of this new year, to make use of your church. Here are a few practical suggestions:
Prioritize the Sunday gathering. God’s people have been assembling weekly for thousands and thousands of years. This is a Big Rock and should be a priority for everyone interested in being “good” for God’s use. Come hungry; capture thoughts for further reflection; sing loudly; stick around.
Get plugged in to a smaller group. This could be a ministry group, like the music team, set-up crews, kid’s class, the prayer team, or it could be a Bible study, book club, or prayer group. “The Church” is not the church’s Sunday service—the church is the fellowship, the membership, the community. Christ’s work filters into our lives through each other.
Get coffee. That is, hang out, outside of official church functions. This church is super full of super great “good” Christians; that is, they’re eager to be used by the Lord, and they’re ready. And in the holy wisdom of the Universe’s only God, He’s appointed the strange, scratchy, collection of saints at church to help us grow good again.
But to get the most out of the church, Sundays, small groups, and personal connections are all three important.
We don’t have to be perfect. So now we can be good. Well, we could be good, in time. And the church is here, by God’s grace and the work of the Spirit of Jesus, to help.
Bonus:
Two poems that I enjoyed (not really related to the above devotional):
Making the House Ready for the Lord, by Mary Oliver
The Wicked Fairy at the Manger, by U.A. Fanthorpe
My gift for the child:
No wife, kids, home;
No money sense. Unemployable.
Friends, yes. But the wrong sort –
The workshy, women, wogs,
Petty infringers of the law, persons
With notifiable diseases,
Poll tax collectors, tarts;
The bottom rung.
His end?
I think we’ll make it
Public, prolonged, painful.
Right, said the baby. That was roughly
What we had in mind.
Here's a quick word from Chris Bruno, whom we support as he trains leaders for churches in the Pacific islands.
This is a powerful new song we'll be learning together.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
