DID YOU KNOW that, at whatever age we begin performing instead of being, our real self stops maturing and our outer self begins a journey of learning acting skills to handle life?
I SUSPECT that it would be no surprise that it is quite easy to see this in others but very difficult to see it in ourselves. However, if we will look at this honestly, we will find that churches seem to have far more people living by performance than simply being who they are in Jesus Christ our Lord.
WHY IS THAT? Because so many people have a very immature commitment to self-protection and can only maintain their charades if they hide themselves from everyone in churches that will agree that the outer self is all there is.
ONE OF the biggest lessons of the past few decades is that the growth of the kingdom of God is constantly hindered by professing Christians who are unable and unwilling to do the next thing God is calling them to do. They can’t join God in his work because that would take them places they don’t want to go. And so, instead of doing the next thing God says (like Jesus telling his disciples to get into the boat[1]), they continue to contribute their performance to the programmed activities of the church and are applauded for playing such an important role in keeping the machinery running.[2]
WHY IS THIS my focus today?
ANSWER: because it is so apparent that the men in the Bible who are mentoring me through life keep showing me how they were real with themselves, God, and his people, no matter what they were facing.
THIS MORNING, this stood out in my journey with Nehemiah. I have walked with him through his obvious concern for the people of God, his grief in hearing how poorly they were doing back home, and his inability to leave his service to the king to go and do anything about it.[3] Months had passed, and his sorrow was still so intense that the king became aware of it and asked him, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.”[4]
THIS COULD be a death sentence for Nehemiah since a servant did not impose his negative emotions on the king. But the moment the king asked him about his sad countenance, Nehemiah’s genuine response was, “Then I was very much afraid.”[5]
WE ARE NOW watching a scene unfold where one of God’s children is “much afraid” of what could happen to him simply because he brought a negative emotion into the king’s presence. But the question is, what would come out of Nehemiah? Would he do what is most common, to fabricate a self-protective performance to avoid the danger? Or would he be honest of heart and trust God with the outcome?
HIS
RESPONSE was this: “I said to the king, ‘Let the king live forever! Why
should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' graves, lies
in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?’”[6]
OKAY, SLOW DOWN and let that sink in. Nehemiah just got poked with the piercing interruption of tremendous fear, and what came out of his heart was the most sincere admission of what was causing his sadness of heart. In other words, his love for God and his people was so genuine that he would never sacrifice anyone on the altar of his self-protection. He lived as his real self, and so his real self came out in even the scariest scenarios.
I HONESTLY do not know what it would be like to be mentored in person by someone like Nehemiah. But perhaps that is so that I can put the spotlight on what every one of us can experience by having a daily time with God in his word and prayer. He will use the men of God in his word to mentor and disciple us in how to be our real selves in Jesus Christ.
HOWEVER, here is a little nuance of growing up in Christ we must consider. If the day we started living a performance instead of being genuine our real self stopped maturing, guess what that means. It means that, when we deny ourselves any more right to live by performance and self-protection, we will necessarily find ourselves a lot less mature than we have been acting! And that may just be the scariest thing we have ever faced, that we are this old and that immature!
BUT ALL THAT MEANS is that we need to follow Jesus in what he said about becoming like little children in order to experience the kingdom of God![7]
OKAY, so that was a surprise thought to me that now has me wondering at the wisdom and knowledge of God in presenting such a clear statement of, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God”. I have never thought of it as God’s grace to the big people who discover their real self is still just a child so we would know we could come to him right now, today, just as the little children we are, and Jesus himself will lead us to grow up in him to the glory of God and the good of his people.
I BELIEVE that, if you have made it this far, you may be willing to ask God to please help you do the next thing in his work of addressing why you are unable to do the next things he calls you to do. I know by experience that, if we will address this every day of our lives, and will listen to God’s word everyday to hear what he is saying to us, we will not only see him showing us his will on a daily basis, but we will see his will applied to us in the most customized ways as our heavenly Father cares for us in every way and helps us with our fears, heartaches, and even self-protection.
AS WE get to know him like that, “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”[8]
AND TO
EXPERIENCE how God is doing this, we simply must meet with him the way we
really are, and listen to what he really has to say, so he can make us like he
really is. Just tell him every morning that you are willing to do the “next
things” he shows you before you even know what they are. It might seem
scary, but getting to know Jesus by personal experience as the Savior who calms
the storm-tossed seas of life is vastly superior to the doldrums of a shore-bound
life because our self-protection has never let us feel the wonder of joining
God in his work.
© 2023
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English
Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition:
2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News
Publishers.)
[1]
Matthew 8:23; 14:22; Mark 3:9;
6:45; Luke 8:22
[2]
Or they perform at playing the
“poor me” victim who just has so many problems that they can’t honestly be
expected to ever do anything God expects of his children.
[3]
Nehemiah 1
[4]
Nehemiah 2:2
[5]
Nehemiah 2:2
[6]
Nehemiah 2:3
[7]
Matthew 18:3; 19:14; Mark
10:14; Luke 18:16
[8]
II Corinthians 3:18
