Desiring to Finish Well

This will be an interesting year.  As I continue through life, these footprints of faith hopefully speak with some sort of genuine honesty, cause some kind of thinking in you that resonates truth.  Lately, as I have been reading about lives in scripture, I am struck by the lives of many who get it 'right' but in the end, get swallowed up with pride and fail miserably.

Who, you might ask?  Solomon, Sampson, Uzziah just to name a few.  Uzziah was made king at the age of 16.  At that age, he had a relationship with God and set things back in order for the people to rekindle their relationship with God.  God blessed and prospered he and the people.  God also blessed Uzziah with 52 years of leadership, but just like Solomon, and Sampson, success and prosperity numbed them from dependency upon the one who provided the success and prosperity in the first place.  Pride and arrogance slipped in.  As the self-centeredness chipped away at their souls, God started chipping away His blessing in what seems to be an attempt to get them to see and return back to Him.  I leave the judgement up to God as to whether we will see them in heaven or not, just like I do for every soul, including mine.

The danger of great success is that bite by bite it can consume our humility, our dependence and obedience to The One who give us ALL things, ALL success for His purpose and glory.  Our lack of dependence upon God is happening across our nation, our arrogance found in we the people and our leaders.  Rather than attempt to eat that huge bagel of an arrogant society, God keeps telling me to stop concerning myself with others, focusing on what He wants to do in me.  I want to finish well.  He wants me to finish well.  He would like all of us to finish well.  The only way it can be accomplished well in me, is in honest, humble subjection to the King, Jesus as He continues to vie for my active connection with Him, and, if I get it right, God will lead me to finish well.  He wants me to start, with His help, eating my own bagel of pride bite by bite.

I have a confession to make.  I am not very humble. I have a long way to go, and with God's help, I am hoping to arrive there.  How do I know?  I am too quick to critique others.  While God may give me insight into their shortcomings, what I do with what is seen as 'less than satisfactory' points to either my humility or its absence.  Often this critique has to do with some expectation of perfection I believe the work or performance should have.  It is the 'looking for flaws' mentality that exposes my lack of humility, the looking for flaws thinking I could do it better, that is.

When we set ourselves up to look for flaws, we will always find them and when we do, the discovery of the flaws can destroy the message of the messenger.  Looking for flaws in your mate will destroy your marriage. Looking for flaws, critiquing, can set us up as 'better than another' because we make ourselves aware of their shortcomings, again, thinking we are beyond that or could do that better.   However, if we listen to God and ask Him to work out our own flaws, He will change our perspective. He will lead us to true humility.  Let Him work out the flaws we may see in others.  I have come to discover I have plenty flaws of my own He wants to work on.

I am not saying we need to stop looking for flaws.  It is the reason and way we do it that should change.  I should only concern myself with flaws that lead me away from truth or away from a deepening relationship with God.  As a musician, I expect 'professionals' those with far exceeding talent than mine to be perfect, and they mostly are, amazing me with their ability and skill.  In many ways I would be embarrassed to sit and play with any of them clearly demonstrating the chasm of ability that is between they and me.  When I play in church, every 'performance' is 'stricken' with some form of mistake or another, and the congregants tell me they don't hear a single one.  Indeed, they mostly aren't awful mistakes, but I clearly know when I make them, and am glad they do not appear to be sitting in worship focused on critiquing my abilities or mistakes.

God continues His gentle urging into my life.  You know how they tell you not to pray, asking God to help you learn patience?  I am here to tell you be careful when you ask God to teach you and help you become humble...but asking for both will transform your life, if you truly seek each.

As I sit here blogging yet again, I find myself critiquing the world.  Two things we desperately need are patience and humility abounding on planet earth.  As I say this, just like I did when I asked God to make others people of prayer, His response to me was and remains,

"Don't concern yourself with this in others, I want you to become a man of prayer."

Ouch.  And then,

"Don't concern yourself with lack of patience in others, I want you to become a man of patience."

And finally,

"Don't concern yourself with apparent lack of humility in others, I want you to become a man of humility."

Ouch, ouch, ouch!

I, however, really want to grow to be more of all three of these.  Slowly, God seems to be leading me there.  I want to finish well.  I am hoping this will be an interesting year followed by another and another, my interest steeped deeper, fuller and more immersed as a man of prayer, a man of patience and a man of humility.  It's going to hurt.

The lessons I will learn will sting as they already have.  As I sit here exposing my heart, I know I will need plenty of help along the way.  I invite others to come alongside with similar desire and experience.  The best way to do this is to focus on the encouragement of that which is excellent and worthy of praise.  As we garner acceptance the only critiques welcome are from God and His people will be for our spiritual progress and continuation of growth as we press through our lives.  Our God will help the accomplish the task as we pray to remain patient, humble people following His leading through life, both He and we desiring our lives to be lived well and finish well.