I Make Jesus Look Good

I love hospital stays. People are always complaining about them but I could use a good hospital stay. Yes, they wake you up to check your blood pressure and take your temperature. But if I was at home someone would wake me up anyway. And they wouldn’t be doing it to see if I was alive, they’d be doing it to ask me for something.

A bottle.

A diaper change.

My credit card for a pizza.

Or to ask me something stupid like, “Are we seriously out of spray cheese and chicken biscuit crackers?” Or “How do you spell Neapolitan?”

 

If someone wakes me up at the hospital it is for my well being. And then I can ask them to please bring me cranberry juice over bug ice. Two years ago, I was in the hospital for 9 days.

 

It was a restful time. Granted I was very sick, but in that sickness I was better off in the hospital. I was better cared for. I was wheeled to MRIs and cat-scans. I was given painkillers and iv fluids … And cranberry juice over bug ice.

In my weakness – good things happened.

In my broken state, in a hospital room on the 4th floor, the troops at home rallied and took care of things while I rested.

Today I googled “where does it say in the bible in my weakness He is strong…” (go ahead laugh, I never said I was a great theologian.)

Because in general – I am feeling weak, discouraged and run down.

I wanted to know this is okay.

And it really is in there… “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

 

I was most glad to learn, “God won’t give you more than you can handle” is not in the bible. I was happy to learn, the Jesus I love isn’t up on high zapping folks with brain tumors because one person exuded a level of capability greater than others. But a Jesus that super charges when I am an utter disaster? That’s an awesome Jesus because I am a disaster like 99% of the time.

If I alone were the battery that juiced up the living God with power, strictly based on my weakness… He would be 1000 times more powerful than He already is.

You as a society of believers can count on Jesus to be made more powerful because I am a wreck.

You’re welcome.

I like this Word much more than so many of the other biblical promises we so easily spout. Actually, it’s a better recruitment tactic when fishing for men. We’re always so quick to say, “new life, saved, changed…” And while these are true, they are not the “SHAZAM!” magic moments that they always suggest.

Yes, there’s hope we may not have known. Yes, I am different – but I still screw up. Yes, He died to save me – but I still struggle with that which keeps me bound to the foot of the cross. And it is a process, salvation. It is a relationship to be worked out with fear and trembling.

 

 

But when I first heard the good news, I don’t remember hearing anything past, “You’ll be saved and have eternal life!”

Maybe when we are fishing for men we should say this, “Hey, you seem like a huge disaster! You would make God even more powerful by how rotten you are!”

Of course we seek change, of course we strive to be better.

Better.

Often times better is a process too.  

There is the miraculous-ness of instant freedom, instant healing.  And then there is the humdrum of being stuck within the confines of my strong hold.  A place of disenchantment, a place where we don’t think the God who offered us a new life and living water… is  listening to our pleas; that He is unwilling to set us free.  

Great hope, a good catch, is most likely facilitated by a grand promise.

I propose a new promise when spreading good news.

Come follow Jesus.

Come make Him your own.  

Yes, eternal life… yes, living water.

 

It will still hurt. You will still have to climb, you just won’t do it alone anymore. Oh, and by the way, this God is super powered by you who is a disaster.

 

 

This God came to save the lost, broke, sick, and the suffering. This God, moves how He He moves and saves how He saves. I cannot explain Him, but I love Him and trust Him.

And honey, you will make Him look good.  

May your floors be sticky and your calling ordained. Love, Jami

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed–not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence–continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling… Phillipians 2:12