Please, No Pedestals

If we say, "We have no sin," we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. - 1 John 1:8

I am practically perfect.

No, really.

How do I know? An African told me so.

When I lived in Ivory Coast, I met with a local man for Bible study (and to practice my french). He helped me with the language and I helped him with the Word of God. Once while we were discussing how difficult it is to walk according to the Spirit, I took him to Paul's confession in Romans 7 ("... I do not practice what I want to do...."). He then asked if this passage was true for me and when I replied in the affirmative, he vehemently disagreed! He could not see how this was possible considering my vocation. In his mind, no missionary was capable of sinning. The truth was no missionary had ever sinned where he could see it!

There may be some (perhaps not as it was in the past) who labor under a misconception concerning those in vocational Christian service (missionaries, pastors, etc.), that somehow a person who serves God in this way is a "Super Christian." This doesn't mean that those of us who have been placed in this role should look for ways to display our frailties, but we shouldn't hide them either. We are certainly not perfect. We're not even better. We're just gloriously redeemed, like every other person who has ever been converted.

Please, no pedestals.

The world itself is pregnant with failure, is the perfect manifestation of imperfection, of the consciousness of failure. - Henry Miller