"Asking 'Is It True?'"

The other day, I came across this post at Stuff Christians Like. It’s a neat post reminding us of God’s unconditional love for us and our position in Jesus Christ. The believer has already been made to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and we have been made suitable to that station. When Christ took our sinfulness on the cross, He granted to us His righteousness. When He took our death, He gave us His life.

That’s our position in Christ. But how we live is sometimes something completely different.

Back in the days when I could still play baseball without risking a pulled groin and aching for two days afterward, I was playing second base at a friend’s house.

The other team took only an inning or two to figure out that if they slid into second feet-first, deliberately aiming for my shins, I would get out of the way. Thus, even if the throw was beating them there, they could still be safe – and they could steal second at will.

Kids being kids, it took approximately 2.35 nanoseconds for this realization to make the transition to teasing and taunting.

Lacking the emotional alligator-hide I developed as life went on, I ended up fleeing home in tears to tell my dad, “They called me a chicken!” (This was especially meaningful to a boy who grew up on a small farm, where chickens are not only fearful, but also the smelliest and most disgusting of barnyard creatures to clean up after. Pigs got nuthin’ on chickens when it comes to stink.)

Looking back now as a dad on that situation, I’m sure it caught my dad a bit off guard. We parents are never really prepared for the crucial moments that sneak up on our children’s lives. Being the practical fellow that he is, he improvised and responded, “Well, are you?”

I suspect that his intent was to bring the conversation to the same place that Jon took it with his daughter. My presumed answer would be, “No, I’m not a chicken!” He could then say, “Well, then it doesn’t matter what they say, does it? You and I know it’s not true. Sticks and stones, blah, blah, blah.” (Sorry, parents never actually say, “Blah, blah, blah. But sometimes, I think we might as well.)

That’s how I expect he expected the conversation to play out. But his question brought me up short. It was one thing for neighborhood kids to call me a name and laugh at me – it was easy to disregard that as them being mean. But my dad wasn’t mean. And now he asked me to evaluate myself: was I being a chicken?

I was forced to admit to myself that, yes, I had been a chicken. I was afraid of getting my shins bumped, so I was running away. I admitted to my dad that I had been a chicken (though he was gracious enough not to comment on smell), and I headed back over to the neighbor’s.

The passing years have dimmed my memory of the exact course of events, but I think the next person or two who slid into the base aiming at my shins connected. And I didn’t run away. I hung onto the ball, and I fell on top of whoever slid into me. I wasn’t big, but I was bony, and that swiftly put a stop both to the teasing and to the problem my friends had with casual base-theft.

Sometimes, we’re hit with an uncomfortable accusation, whether from within or without, and we have to ask, “Is that true?” Is it true that I’m lazy? Is it true that I’m being a lousy husband/wife/dad/mom? Is it true that I’m making bad decisions in some area of my life? Is it true that I’m weak, cowardly, and insufficient?

It might be comfortable to shrug it off and rest happily in our standing in Jesus Christ. But what we do and how we live needs to match what we are in Him. And sometimes that means we need to face those tough questions, acknowledge the uncomfortable answer, and go change what needs to be changed.

Sometimes, instead of reminding us how wonderful we are in Jesus Christ, God, our Father, reminds us of how pitiful we are apart from Jesus Christ. Fortunately, this is never to beat us down – it’s to lift us up to living on the higher plane that is our birthright in Jesus Christ.

When He reminds us of failure, it’s to bring us to victory. When He confronts us with our weakness, it’s to grant us His strength. When He disciplines disobedience, it’s to motivate us to obedience. When He shows us our sin, it’s to bring us to repentance and His righteousness.

We simply have to be honest about what we are and be willing to change what He tells us in order to live as He has made us.