“Come all of you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give your rest.” Matthew 11:28
I had never really given the true extent of that verse much thought until recently. I had always thought that all who came to Christ all came from the same place and all ended up in the same place—that place being exactly where I was—in thought, beliefs, politics, etc.
But I am realizing nothing could be further from the truth.
While all who accept Christ as savior start as sinners and end up redeemed sinners, that is where a lot of the similarity ends.
What led me to this revelation was reading Anne Lamott’s Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith.
Lamott grew up a true child of the sixties. She was born in 1954 in San Francisco and grew up in Marin County. She partook in pretty much all of the pleasures of the sixties and has the scars to prove it. BUT during her time at Goucher College she became a Christian, and when you read her works, her Christianity is raw and real.
Politically, Lamott is left of center and often I wondered how her views on some subjects lined up with Biblical teaching, BUT her salvation theology is sound, and she speaks candidly in her books about her faith and struggles.
I mention this because, as I said earlier, I always thought that when a person became a Christian, he or she would automatically slide into step with me. That I was the plumb line for Christian thinking that every person should be measured by. But that was arrogance and ignorance rolled into one.
Philippians 1:6 says, “that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus,” which means—we aren’t finished yet—so none of us can be the plumb line. That role is Christ’s alone.
God wants to restore our relationship with Him first and foremost. He wants us to have a heart for Him. He is working in each one of us individually from where we started to when He completes us. He grants us grace as we stumble. He alone judges, and we are accountable to Him.
I may not be in step or even on the same road as some of my fellow Christians as we journey through this world, but that is not mine to judge. My job is to worship God and love others.
I had never really given the true extent of that verse much thought until recently. I had always thought that all who came to Christ all came from the same place and all ended up in the same place—that place being exactly where I was—in thought, beliefs, politics, etc.
But I am realizing nothing could be further from the truth.
While all who accept Christ as savior start as sinners and end up redeemed sinners, that is where a lot of the similarity ends.
What led me to this revelation was reading Anne Lamott’s Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith.
Lamott grew up a true child of the sixties. She was born in 1954 in San Francisco and grew up in Marin County. She partook in pretty much all of the pleasures of the sixties and has the scars to prove it. BUT during her time at Goucher College she became a Christian, and when you read her works, her Christianity is raw and real.
Politically, Lamott is left of center and often I wondered how her views on some subjects lined up with Biblical teaching, BUT her salvation theology is sound, and she speaks candidly in her books about her faith and struggles.
I mention this because, as I said earlier, I always thought that when a person became a Christian, he or she would automatically slide into step with me. That I was the plumb line for Christian thinking that every person should be measured by. But that was arrogance and ignorance rolled into one.
Philippians 1:6 says, “that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus,” which means—we aren’t finished yet—so none of us can be the plumb line. That role is Christ’s alone.
God wants to restore our relationship with Him first and foremost. He wants us to have a heart for Him. He is working in each one of us individually from where we started to when He completes us. He grants us grace as we stumble. He alone judges, and we are accountable to Him.
I may not be in step or even on the same road as some of my fellow Christians as we journey through this world, but that is not mine to judge. My job is to worship God and love others.
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