Not quite at 100% yet

I will freely admit that I don't have my life all put together, packaged up in a neat little 'perfect' package. In fact, there are frayed edges, places where the seams are coming apart, and some pretty messy 'junk drawers' in my life! How about you? Do you have a 'perfect' package going on? Or are you probably a little like me - still not quite as 'put together' as you'd like, but well on your way?

I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back. (Philippians 3:14)

The real crux of it all is that we are 'well underway'. We aren't turning back and we aren't going to get off on tangents, going who knows where. The more we commit to this walk with Jesus, the more we realize that we aren't as 'put together' as we might have thought. The closer we draw into his presence, the more we realize there are just parts of us that are yet to be touched as deeply by his grace and presence as they need to be.

Anyone who puts forward the façade of having their life all 'put together' in a neat little 'perfect' package is really trying to pull the wool over your eyes. There is only one who walked out a perfect life on this earth and he went to the cross! It is sometimes viewed as a weakness to admit we don't have our lives as 'put together' as some might imagine it to be, but there is also something quite liberating in being truthful about how 'imperfectly' you live on occasion. 

I struggle with my thoughts - how about you? I let my thoughts go down a path of comparing myself to another - how about you? I get all wrapped up in what they have done or said, over-emphasizing the stuff I find fault with - how about you? I struggle with my motives at times - how about you? I sometimes want something I know I shouldn't pursue, but find it hard to let go of that internal motivation to pursue that wrong path - how about you?

You see, we aren't always going to have 'perfect' packages, are we? We are going to get stuff wrong. We are going to go against the grain on occasion. We are going to make incorrect choices or dwell way too long on stuff we should have let go of a long time ago. The good news is that once we set our feet on the path TOWARD right-living (righteousness), we are not walking out that path alone - Jesus and the Holy Spirit are right there with us - helping us get the 'package' a little closer to perfect with each step we take. Just keep walking, my friends - we won't get it right 100% of the time - but we are well underway. Just sayin!