Math Test or Recess

Theme: Act like you will be there!

I am writing this weekly blog this morning and using another blog as my reference point. Recently, I read a blog on Fox News.com entitled “Guilt Is Good.” It cited the recently deceased Pope Francis’s criticism of the modern tendency of psychologists and therapists to assuage their clients of all guilt and shame fully. The blog summarized the Pope’s argument, saying guilt is often justified because people “make mistakes, commit sins, and should be ready to own up to them and ask forgiveness.”

Today’s therapists often try to console their patients by assuring them that they are not at fault, but according to the Pope, they “know in their hearts that it’s not true, that sin exists, and they are sinners.” He was further quoted as saying that God can be likened to a divine sculptor who “removes the accumulation of dust and debris covering the image of God inscribed within us...We need forgiveness, which is the core of all true reform.”

In his message this week, Pastor Dan did a great job of delineating the drastic difference between us as “setting up camp in sin,” living in the sinful nature we were born into as descendants of Adam versus being freed from all eternal consequences and condemnation of our former nature.

The message from the Fox News blog was that guilt and shame are good for making us take responsibility for our actions as sinners. Pastor Dan's message was nuanced differently when he quoted, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). He rightly taught that we no longer are to live as guilty, shamed, and condemned sinners but children and heirs of God who happen to remain in this worldly flesh that we sometimes acquiesce to. If we live as children and heirs in Jesus instead of defeated, woeful sinners, we will be less like Pope Francis described us and more like Paul described us in Chapter 8 of Romans and as Pastor Dan taught us on Sunday. All three described the same reality, but how the hearer would perceive it is entirely different. One is as a defeated, weak soul “taking a math test,” and the other is as one “heading to recess,” to quote Pastor Dan.

I now feel inadequate in making my point here, so allow me to attempt it again. I believe all three messages teach similar truths. However, I think the messages differ in describing us in Jesus, and I believe Pastor Dan gave us a clear understanding of this as Paul wrote it. Do we carry ourselves as woeful, defeated sinners, downtrodden and glum, or victorious children and heirs with Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, and joyous in Glory and suffering? How we see ourselves and carry ourselves affects how often we sin and react to it when we do. When a great athlete or a high-level musician makes the tiniest mistake, they at once know it, own up to it, and correct it. One who sees themselves as inferior and shameful will repeatedly cover, deny, and compound that mistake. The same is true for how we perceive ourselves in Christ Jesus, and that perception affects how we walk, how we grow in Christ, and how attractive we are to those lost in the world.

I had a saying for the young men I coached when teaching them how to carry themselves on and off the field, as I did not expect them to accept their greatness immediately. It was simply, “Fake it till you make it.” Act like you intend to be, not how you perceive yourself today. Pastor Dan, being a former coach, was telling us the same thing as he learned it from Paul. Instead of “Act like you've been there,” his message is, “Act like you will be there.”

---

Scripture: Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭9‬, ‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭(NIV‬‬)

“You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.””

‭‭‬‬

---

Prayer:

Lord, I know that in myself I am nothing, just clay worked by your hands. But I also know that in you, Jesus, and by the Holy Spirit who guides my steps, I am more than a victor and your child and an heir of God. Teach me more each day, Lord, to walk in victory, not in arrogance or pride, but in the knowledge that in you and you only can I do so. Let me walk in a way that is both humble and upright, shoulders straight and head high. Make my joy be so appealing to others that they long to know the source of that joy, and my reason for my straight, upright walk. Thank you, Lord, for this life I now lead, for the victory I do not deserve but eagerly accept as mine, and all Praise and Glory be yours. Amen.