REFOCUS
This breath prayer taken from Romans 8 is a reassurance of God’s unfailing love.
On the inhale: Nothing can separate me,
On the exhale: from the love of God.
READ
Romans 7
For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.
2nd Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, “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.
1 Corinthians 1:26-30
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.
27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are
29 So that no one may boast before him.
30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
REFLECT
Investing in Imperfection
On May 13th of 1918 a postage stamp was printed. At the time no one could have guessed that 90 years later the stamp would sell for almost one million dollars. The twenty-four cent stamp contained a picture of a Curtiss JN-4 plane, the airplane of WWI pilots and “barnstormers.”
What made the stamp so valuable was not the plane or even the age of the stamp. What gave it value was that the plane was printed upside down. Of all the stamps printed depicting the plane, only one sheet of a hundred stamps contained the mistake.
The following day, on May 14th, the stamp was released to the public. The postal clerk who received the sheet thought nothing of it. He later remarked, “how was I to know the thing was upside down? I never saw a plane before.”
Postal inspectors tried to impound the stamp, which they regarded as an embarrassing error and as sub-standard. They sought to hide the blunder.
Their efforts, however, were in vain, since by the time the mistake was discovered, the sheet had been quickly snapped up by one investor and resold to others. The original purchaser had paid the face value of $24 for the sheet. By the time they tracked him down he had resold it for $14,000 (and was driving a new car). Unlike the clerk, Jones and his fellow investors recognized that the mistake made the stamp precious.
Few Christians would doubt that they have imperfections. Yet, all too often they are like those postal inspectors. First, they measure their value in relation to others.
They are tempted to see their differences as mistakes. Then, because they are embarrassed by their “shortcomings,” they seek to eliminate any evidence of that difference — first by hiding their weakness and then by conforming and reforming to the standards of the world.
What they fail to appreciate is the very thing the Apostle Paul banks on. In the passages above, he readily admits his fallen nature. Even more, he writes that he “boasts” about his weaknesses. Instead of shrinking back from his failures, he highlights them, pointing to them as evidence of God’s grace and his hope in Christ.
In his letters to fellow Christians, he urges them to do the same – first, to honestly admit their lack of measuring up to their and others’ standards. Then to, allow them to be the very thing that God uses to allow his power and grace to shine through.
The apostle is aware that like the investor who saw the value of the sheet of “inverted Jenny” and invested in them, God has invested in imperfect people. While others may see them as embarrassments or substandard, he values them as precious, not in spite of who they are but because of who they are –using their flaws to establish their worth.
Part of their value is that God sends his message to the world through them – They are walking, talking evidence of a God who love for us and worth he sees in us is not based our performance. They remain unconfirmed to the values of the world – even if it means that they appear as different, strange or even sub-standard.
Christ followers are those that show His grace in lives “stamped” with imperfections. Once we grasp hold of this important truth we can join the apostle both in the freedom of transparency and in thanksgiving for who we are, and who we are becoming.
RESPOND
Questions to Consider
- Are there ways in which I don’t “measure up” to societies or my own standards?
- How do I feel about the idea that God has “invested in me?”
- What are some of my blemishes and faults? In what way do these faults impact my willingness to be transparent with others?
- Are there ways in which God can use my weaknesses to reveal who He is?
Prayer
Almighty God, our Heavenly Father. You have told us in your Word that you came for and love sinners. Allow us to leave behind concerns about and efforts to prove our worthiness. Grant that we would fully accept our faults and weaknesses as places for Your grace and power to be known, trusting You fully to use our brokenness.
Blessings,
Rev. James R. Needham, PhD, MDiv