Are You a Good Ambassador, or Just Good Enough?

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.  We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

2 Corinthians 5:20

I have had enough with good enough.  I am tired of being a half-way, tepid, good-enough Christian.  I am ready to be more than good-enough.  I read this verse at church on Sunday and the word ambassador grabbed my attention.

Ambassador – it sounds important, very official.  My favorite definition says an ambassador is a person who acts as a representative or promoter of a specified activity.  The Latin root of the word ambassador is servant.

The Bible says that we are to be Christ’s ambassadors.  Honestly, that is not what my focus is on most days.  I tend to think of how I can promote myself, my comfort, my pleasure.  I tend to promote myself before I promote Christ.  Many days I look at how I can be served, instead of whom I can serve.

I forget that as believers we are in a spiritual war daily. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places”. God has brought us into his army for action.  Often, I am not focused on my job in His Army.  I have gotten sidetracked.

Imagine if the US sent an ambassador to Russia to share a plan for everlasting peace with Putin.  Imagine if along the way the ambassador was more worried about his accommodations, what clothing he was going to wear, or making sure he was entertained.  Would the US be pleased with that ambassador?  Of course not!  We would be concerned that the ambassador was not focused on the job at hand.  I am sure the US would say, “Enough – get to work.  We sent you to do a job that is a matter of life or death.  Your work affects the peace of the whole world.”

Today, I am telling myself the same message.  Get to work.  I have a place in God’s Army.  I need to be about the battle.  Enough promoting me – it’s time to promote Christ.  Enough with the laziness, it is time to be in action.  Enough with just good-enough.  God has brought me onto his team for action.  I do not want to settle – I want to be the ambassador Christ has called me to be.

Sacrificing our Kids

Is this the Modern Day Golden Calf?

Psalms 106:34

“They refused to obey the Spirit of God. So Moses spoke without thinking. They didn’t destroy the nations in Canaan as the Lord had commanded them. Instead they mixed with those nations and adopted their ways. They worshiped statues of their gods. That became a trap for them. They sacrificed their sons and daughters as offerings to false gods. They killed those who weren’t guilty of doing anything wrong. They killed their own sons and daughters. “

I have always thought the Golden Calf made by the Israelites was a little crazy.  Like, why would you do that?  I would never worship something that I made as a God – especially in the shape of livestock?!  I recently learned that the biggest of all the idols archeologists have uncovered in Israel have been 7 inches tall!  What? Can you imagine bowing down to a man-made 7 inch statue?  What is even crazier is the Israelites also sacrificed their first-born children to these idols.

When I first read this, I thought, “How on Earth could anyone sacrifice their child to an idol?”  Then, I paused.  American culture is really not so different than the idol worship of long ago.  We are even sacrificing our children to our idol worship.

We have become so entangled with our culture that we have created idols we worship instead of God.  Our kids are sacrificed to the idols of money, image, social status, and even to sports, just to spell out a few.  In the name of trying to keep up with the Jonses and pursuing that extra dollar, we lay our children on the sacrificial alter daily.  The biggest idol of all?  Happiness – we think our one short life is about being happy.  We keep thinking that some of those items listed above bring happiness, only to find out they are empty.  That is a lie straight from Satan.  Our life is to bring Glory to God, period.  

I prayed and asked God to open my eyes and show me idols in my life.  I had thought maybe I was not as bad as mainstream culture.  After all, I am a mom who has devotions and prays with my kids each day.  I take them to church and we even have a kid’s worship CD in our car for goodness sakes!  I prayed that prayer and waited about two seconds before God brought to my mind all the nights that I rushed bedtime so that I could sit in front of a TV show that does not glorify God.  I am sacrificing my children’s precious childhood just for my entertainment.  TV is not bad, but putting it in front of bedtime prayers with my child makes it a tool used by the devil.

I recently noticed that my son had started bringing my phone to me each time I left a room.  “Mommy you need your phone.  Mommy you forgot your phone”, he would say as he delivered it again and again.  I realized he had seen me carry my phone with me as if it were a lifeline. I was worshiping an idol so small it fit in my hand. I guess I had better stop judging those Israelites!  I wonder how life would look if I treated my Bible as well as my phone?  How many times would I read it throughout the day? How many times would I check it for answers to questions? Maybe if I start getting my false gods out of the way I will have time for the real God to speak answers of life to me.  

Psalms 106: 36 says “They worshiped statues of their gods. That became a trap for them.”

What would happen if we start perfecting our relationships with our children more than their baseball swing?  What if we started really living our moments instead of constantly posting them on Facebook?  Ask yourself what false god’s you might be serving today.  I for one need to quit putting so much emphasis on these worldly things, as they are only temporary.  Worshiping these false gods entrap us and give us false happiness and security.  I want to stop serving these false idols, and stop sacrificing my kids to them.  Instead, I want to seek Jesus who is the god of true joy and freedom.

The Son in Her Eyes

My hubby took a picture of me overlooking Cloudland Canyon State Park in Georgia.  I took one look at this picture and said, “It would be a great picture if the sun was not in my eyes.”  Realization hit as I heard my words out loud.  The “Son” – Jesus - should be in my eyes.  Jesus – not chores, not finances, not illness, not schedules – not fear – this is what I want to be my focus.

Recently, I heard someone say that we should gaze at God, just glance at our problems, and then turn our steady gaze back to God.  I have no idea where I heard this statement, but I think it may just be the key to getting through our toughest times.  You see, I tend to gaze upon my problems.  I tend to analyze, reconstruct, talk about, and overthink my problems.  I tend to call my friends and ask their opinions.  I concentrate my time and energy on the problem.  This is not the right approach.  I want to have the Son in my gaze.  I want to be looking so hard at Jesus that I can’t see anything else.  Think about it.  When we gaze at the sunshine, it is so bright that we need to squint.  That is what God wants for our lives.  God wants us to gaze upon His Son.  God does not want us to fill our vision with our problems; instead He wants us to focus on Jesus.  Jesus is the only thing that lasts. So why do I keep focusing on things that fade away?  When I get to the end of my life, I want to think back and say, “Wow, great life. I had the Son in my eyes!”

Are you on the Journey with God, or just Peering in the Windows?

This past weekend our friends invited us to borrow an exotic car to take on a road trip through the mountains.  Matt and I are both huge car fans, so this was a dream trip.  We could not afford this car as it’s more than our first house!  But, John invited us to go and pay nothing.  As we were driving through the Great Smoky Mountains, I began thinking how this trip reminded me so much of God.

God is such a great God.  Do you realize that all other “gods” - Budda, Mohammad, Greek Gods of the past – all other gods have asked for us to do things in order to be forgiven, saved or deemed righteous.  Our God asked for nothing and He gave everything by dying on the cross for us.  God is the only God that requires only for us to accept a free gift in order to have a relationship with him.  How cool is that?

John gave us this Ferrari for the weekend.  No strings attached.  We did not pay any money, we did not sign any contracts; it was a free gift.  Not only that, but John did not say, “here is your car, now go on your way.”  No - he went on the road trip with us.  He wanted to hang out and enjoy the weekend together.  That is so like our Heavenly Father.  He wants to give us a free gift of salvation - something that we could never pay for on our own.  And then, he wants to spend time in relationship “on the road of life” with us.

On the flip side, Matt and I were so appreciative and respectful of the gift that we took careful steps to protect this gift.  Matt parked the Ferrari away from other cars that could ding our doors.  I made sure that we kept the inside of the car neat and tidy.  We treated this gift with appreciation and the respect the gift deserved.

Are you treating your life – your gift of salvation with the respect and love that God deserves?  Are you being careful not to “mess-up” this precious gift of life God has given?  I, for one, am the first to not protect my ears and eyes from sin.  I was way more careful to stay away from objects that might hurt the Ferrari than I am staying away from temptation that might hurt my soul.

At every stop we made, strangers would come over to the car and peer into the windows. They would stand back and admire this exotic car. Often, they would ask what year the car was made or us how fast we had driven. Lots of questions, lots of looking, but they never really hopped in the car for a drive. Is this you on your Christian walk? Are you really on a journey with God, or are you just checking Him out on Sundays?  I don’t know about you, but the drive does not really start until I hop in and start the engine. It’s the same with Jesus. I cannot be on the journey with Him unless I am spending time in the word, praying, and living every moment on the ride with my Heavenly Father.

Sometimes we think of God as a being up in Heaven waiting for us to mess up.  That is wrong.  God is on our side.  God is pulling for us.  God wants to have fellowship and do the journey of life together.

Guest Post by Julie's Lighter Side Columnist

Recently, a friend told me that she wished she “had it all together” like me. Then I died laughing. No really, it was probably the best compliment I’d gotten in a while, except that time my 5-year-old told me that I only had the second stinkiest feet in the family. As a modern mom, isn’t “having it all together” (or at least the appearance that we do) what we’re striving for—the ultimate goal of millennial motherhood?

Let me assure you that I absolutely do not have it together. My family’s collection of Happy Meal toys alone is proof of that. I try to be very transparent and open about my shortcomings. I don’t want anyone to feel bad if they compare themselves to me. If you must compare yourself to me, please ask and I can tell you lots of things that will make you feel like a fine, upstanding human being.

When we see someone who appears to have it all together, we envy her. We want to know how she does it, we want to be her friend, we want to be her. Of course we can consult our reasonable minds for a moment and realize that no one has it together— we just see what they show us for a short period of time. I think my friend caught me on my one good day in a decade when she made that assessment of me.

The girl at the gym who can do squat thrusts and look cute, instead of obscene. The mom at Starbucks with the perfect messy bun and the Pinterest-worthy outfit. The woman at Kroger with no GMOs, processed foods or artificially colored snacks in her buggy. The mom at the park who corrects her children calmly and kindly, never raising her voice.

This is what we are comparing ourselves to! But do you know what that is? A snapshot. One tiny bit of an otherwise hectic life. Instagram-worthy moments that make us feel less-than. How bizarre that such a short, incomplete glimpse into someone else’s life can make us feel so inadequate and defeated.

I think about this a lot, and as a Type-A list maker, I tend to make mental lists of what I’ve got under control and what I need to improve on. Sometimes I think that once I move everything over to the “Under Control” side, I’ll truly be a got-it-all-together person.

When I start trying to check off that list, that’s when God does His best work in me. Inevitably, I fail. Then I try harder, and fail harder. Because the more value I put on my own ability to take care of everything or be everything to everybody, the more He reveals my need for His strength.

James 3:16-18 says For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness. (NLT)

I’m not saying it’s wrong to want that perfect messy bun, but it is certainly jealousy that makes me compare my life to another’s, and selfish ambition to think that I could or should project the image of having it together. I don’t have to make perfectly balanced and healthy meals every night— God tells me to be gentle and peaceful. I don’t have to hand crochet matching turtlenecks for our family photos, I need to be merciful and sincere.

God shows me that my desire to check off the boxes that the world values is limiting me to a shallow version of what He wants for me. I don’t need to hide my shortcomings, He can use my weaknesses to show His strength.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (NIV)

Calamities, ya’ll. That is my life, Every. Day. It’s like Paul was writing just for me!

God made me the kind of woman who gets frustrated trying to buckle the infant seat in the van properly. He gave me the face that shows every irritation when my kids are wild. He gave me those 3 little circus monkeys who have terribly embarrassing table manners. And He made me love gluten, soy, dairy, GMOs, MSG and red 40.

He did that so that you could look at me and think “Bless her heart, she’s a mess, but she sure does love Jesus.” And that beats having it all together any day.

Julie Holt is a wife, mother of three, hair stylist, runner, reader, writer, and is tired. Very tired. She works in Brentwood, lives in Spring Hill and can be reached at bwcjholt@gmail.com. You can follow Julie on Twitter at jh_lighter_side.

Dear Friends, 

I hope you got as much from Julie's words as I did. I will be inviting other guests to join us from time to time.  See you next week when I am back from vacation!