From
Galatians 1:1-24
“Freedom!”
H,
Well, it is a human
distinction that sets the past as something either to be forgotten or something
to be hid at all cost, if it is negative. We have the inverse problem here: it
is to be celebrated. Or in more popular terms, it all adds up to glory. This is
the most transparent of all things. It has no need to hide anyone’s past or
flawed present. It was the same one who denied Jesus who boldly declared the
faith at Pentecost and that speech spurred on the march of the church through
time.
We are free to be flawed and
to admit it. We have no reason to hide. All this nonsense I hear about being a “witness”
or not spoiling a “testimony” does not recognize the fact that our testimony is
Christ and our witness is of His power to save from the power of sin. We cannot
be like the Pharisees who approach the idea of salvation based on their own
personal “righteous” armor. What a powerful thing it is when we are vulnerable
enough to say that we are “in repair” and that we fall down and this daily. We might
also add that this repair is real and that arms lift us up every time we fall.
This is not a faith for
those who think it is what they do that matters but for those who realize the
reason and power behind what they do. It is not a celebrity hub or a popularity
contest. It states “the first shall be the last” and “the parts that do the
most hidden bits are the ones with the greater glory”. There is no time for ego
here. The point of testimony is to refer to our walk with God and where that
has brought us so anyone walking in the trailing dark can realize that this
power of light works best in the darkest dark. We are translucent and, even
better, transparent so this light and glory might pass through us and land on
hearts looking for the freedom we have received to live out to the fullest
extent of their being that life less ordinary day by day.

We lose a lot of the
immediacy of the gospel when we try to prove points and do PR for God. In real
terms, we are not qualified for this. In terms of grace, it is unnecessary. In some
strange way, strange to us that is, this whole transformation works best the
less we hide. It works best in weakness and better that in weakness revealed. Our
whole lives are an open book to God. It may be useful if we let Him continue to
do the great work that is writing out true story in it so we may discover the
superior tale to our inferior fictions.