Hello, my name is

I talk with many people every day and try to counsel in every opportunity that comes my way. I build relationships with people and seek to show them how to be more like Christ because they contacted me. True, I often fail miserably, and I'm often a poor reflection of what Christ looks like, but my heart beats to counsel, and I would gladly do it for the rest of my life. 

The past few days and weeks I've noticed a pattern in the questions that people are bringing to me, and an over-arching theme of identity. Many people have asked me the question, "Who am I?" and the surrounding questions that go with it as to purpose and motivation. And tonight as I was walking my 12 miles at the Skywalks, I had Matthew West's song about identity going through my head. If you're not familiar with it, here are some of the words, and pay close attention to them. He talks about something I say all the time: Your past does not dictate your future.

Hello, my name is Regret.

I'm pretty sure we have met 

every single day of your life.

I'm the whisper inside that won't let you forget.

Hello, my name is Defeat.

I'm sure you recognize me.

Just when you think you can win, I'll drag you right back down again

til you've lost all belief.

These are the voices, and these are the lies,

but I have believed them for the very last time.

HELLO, MY NAME IS CHILD OF THE ONE TRUE KING!

I'VE BEEN SAVED, I'VE BEEN CHANGED, I HAVE BEEN SET FREE!

AMAZING GRACE IS THE SONG I SING!

Hello, my name is Child of the one true King.

This song is actually my text ringtone, to remind me of its message hundreds of times a day. Dear friend, I have made mistakes. And not just "christian mistakes." I've made some doozies. I've made mistakes that have made me question many things, mistakes that took me down roads of rebellion, mistakes that made me wonder if I was fit for the ministry. But as West sings, "Amazing grace is the song I sing." 

I'm speaking tomorrow night from James 4:1-10. The wise pastor of the first church has been building up for the previous three chapters to this paragraph, and he lets all hell break loose. His whole book is peppered with imperatives, but in verses 7-10, he rapid-fires an almost scathing torrential rebuke to his readers. He starts in verse 5 by quoting Genesis, and says, " The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously. But he gives grace to the humble. Therefore:

Submit to God.

Resist the Devil.

Draw near to God.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners.

Purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Lament.

Mourn.

Weep.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning.

Let your joy be turned to gloom."

All of that to say take your sin seriously. Think about how he started it. He said God wants you. That's a paraphrase of "The Spirit yearns jealously." God himself actually wants you, enough so that his heart breaks when he sees you in sin or apathy. God actually desires you. He weeps when you allow your heart to be turned away to other desires that draw from him or when you allow apathy to pervade your heart and you just don't care at all. He yearns jealously for YOU. 

But there's this pesky matter of sin in the way. And as Christians, we know that our sin gets in the way of fellowship with our God. But too often we listen to the other voices. We listen to Regret and Defeat. We let the lies they tell shape our thinking, and by extension, shape our actions. 

James, however, doesn't give a message of just melancholy and gloom. He says "Cleanse your hands, you sinners." It's time to wash up. It's time to scrape off the crud and clean up. He says, "and purify your hearts, you double-minded." You also need to make your heart right before God. It's not enough to do right. You have to be right. And the way to be right is to walk in close fellowship with God. All of this is under the overall theme of "humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord." 

We don't . . . . well, we don't talk like this anymore. We're all for giving comfort to the downfallen and praise to the triumphant, which is all well and good. But when is the last time you told someone who was doing rather well in their life that they needed to "lament and mourn and weep"? 

There's a twofold attitude that we absolutely must have toward our sin. One is the side that our sin is not our identity. It doesn't chain us to the sinking boat and pull us under. Our past failures do NOT dictate our future choices. 

The flip-side is that it still is serious and is not to be taken lightly. We must humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord and for what? That he might lift us up. And that is the point. This is the grace that he gives to the humble. Thankfully, we don't have to have it all together before Christ extends grace to us in the first place, but then after he's done the initial work of salvation, that gift must make us forever grateful and make us desire to live a life of thankfulness to him for that gift. 

I've spoken of it before and I will speak of it again. There is a connection between concept and action that must be bridged. It's not enough to know the right thing; you must do the right thing. It starts with humbling yourself, and that humility will show you that your sin is big, but God is bigger. Draw a line in the sand, my friend. It's time.