There's a phrase I picked up this past year that I believe will serve us well as we enter into the new year: Seeing Jesus More Clearly.
I heard my spiritual father, Pastor Michael T. Smith, use this phrase a few years ago, but over 2020 it's really begun to grow inside of me.
As we have just celebrated Jesus' birth last week and prepare to enter into a new year, I think it's important that we take the time to recognize all the ways that we have begun to see Jesus more clearly throughout the year and will continue to see Him more clearly in the next.
The reason I like this phrase so much is because one thing that I think is absent from Americanized Christianity is the idea of progression when it comes to our theology. For some reason, we hold to this idea that we have to have it all together from the jump, and that every revelation that we get from God is THE revelation, the one that will finally allow us to walk in perfect liberty, the one that will finally open our lives up to God in a way that we could not have imagined before.
This is the logical result of our endeavor to microwave our Christianity.
You heat food up in the microwave to warm it up faster - whether you're thawing food or heating up leftovers. The point of the microwave is that you don't have to wait nearly as long as you normally do to see the end result.
Unfortunately, that is not the way that Christianity works. I've learned over the last few years that God is just as interested, if not more interested in the process than the destination. While yes, He wants us to reach where He is calling us to go and be who He is calling us to be, He also knows that it isn't the end result that turns you into the person that you were called to be - it's the experiences along the way.
My mom had a sign up in her house years ago, and it simply said "Enjoy the journey." It was a reminder to her to take time to appreciate the process in where she was going rather than anxiously trying to get to the end.
Shellby and I were talking a few months ago about our lives and I was reflecting back on some of the mistakes I had made when I was younger. I told her, "You know, I wish I hadn't dated so-and-so," or, "I wish I hadn't done such-and-such," because looking in at these things in hindsight, they felt like a mistake. Shellby told me that night, "I wouldn't change a thing." When I was shocked, she told me, "It isn't that I'm happy about those things, but they formed you into the person you are today. Without those experiences along the way to shape you, you wouldn't be the man I love now."
If I hadn't gone through these things, I wouldn't be in the same place I am now. I might not see the Bible the way I do today, Jesus the way I do today, or even have my faith and belief. It wasn't that any of those things brought me to a particular point, but there was a journey to be found in every single thing I deemed to be a mistake, and after going through each of those various mistakes, I saw Jesus more clearly. I saw Jesus in a full-er light. I still haven't reached perfect clarity or the full-est light, and I doubt that any of us will this side of heaven - Paul wrote that we see through a glass, darkly. (1 Cor 13:12) It's almost like a person being fitted for glasses - every step in the process results in us seeing just a little more clearly than we have before.
And that's what I want you to reflect on this season - seeing Jesus more clearly. How has He revealed Himself to you in a full-er light? Let's purpose to experience His love, joy, and peace on a deeper level than ever this coming year.
By Grace,
Dave