“We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” 2 Corinthians 4:7
I’ve lived as a Christian now for over fifty years. That’s long enough to know from experience that every single Christian I’ve ever met and ever will meet eventually disappoints – sometimes spectacularly. And, conversely, as hard as it is to admit it, I’ve disappointed them – sometimes spectacularly as well.
Fortunately, I learned at a young age that the antidote to being disappointed by Christians is to remember why I’m a Christian in the first place: I truly believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins, rose physically from the grave, and is coming again, possibly very soon. Nothing any Christian can ever do will change those facts. Why should I allow the reality that often Christians don’t live up to those facts rob me of that hope?
Take, for example, the first time I remember being disappointed by a Christian. I was sixteen and I had just gotten my driver’s license and my first car, a red Datsun 411. One Sunday morning I proudly drove it to church, turned into the crowded parking lot across the street from the sanctuary, and followed a long line of arriving church members searching for a coveted parking spot.
Suddenly, the car in front of me passed up an open parking spot and swerved slightly left. I thought he was angling to park in another vacant spot ahead of him on our right. So I quickly shot into the parking spot he passed up. What I didn’t realize was that the reason he swerved left was because he was preparing to back into the very spot I took.
After he found another parking spot, he got out of his car, caught up with me and started screaming at me at the top of his lungs for being rude. His face was flushed red and the veins in his neck were bulging out. I was shocked. I had so much respect for this very godly man and now he was yelling at me with all his might.
Looking back on that incident, I could easily have gotten back into my car, driven home, never to return to church again. Fortunately, that thought never crossed my mind. For sure, I was shaken to the core by what had just happened. But I continued on into church and recovered during the service.
What a tragedy it would have been if I had allowed the bad behavior of that one Christian to determine the trajectory of my entire life.
“Every man of God has feet of clay,” my very godly uncle would often say. How true. Christian, if you haven’t already, you will eventually be disappointed by another Christian. Maybe even by an entire church or Christian organization. But whatever the case, the reality of who Christ is still stands. Nothing can or ever will change that.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
For the past sixteen years New Commandment Men’s Ministries has helped hundreds of churches throughout North American and around the world recruit teams of men who permanently adopt their widowed and single parents in their congregations for the purpose of donating two hours of service to them one Saturday morning each month. We accomplish this with a free training site called New Commandment Men’s Ministry
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2 thoughts on “Get Your Eyes Off of Christians and Onto Christ”
This was sooo profound Herb!
Thanks!
Thank you, Vicki. I’m so glad you were encouraged by it.