Thursday, April 10, 2014

17. Excuses


Excuses are a way to appease the guilt. They are little lies to free our way out. Rather than admit mistakes or failures we throw up excuses in the air to distract the gaze of others from targeting us and our shortcomings. The thing is, we are not really fooling any one. As we are all great authors of our own excuses, we know one when we hear one. Excuses are part of our human weakness; our fear and insecurity and failures. Moses made them and so do I. But with the use of excuses we are selling ourselves short. Excuses grow into unbelief and lack of faith in who we are ultimately called to be.

Graham Cooke writes, “There isn’t any excuse you could invent that gets you out of your persona (how you are seen in Heaven). God will give you all the training, all the support, all the development you need to establish your persona but you will establish it…Who are you? Who has God called you to be? Everything in your life right now is about the development of that persona. It’s about you understanding that this is how you are perceived in Heaven. When you step into that place and you begin to say to yourself, “THIS is who I am” it’s like standing under a spotlight, it’s like standing under an open Heaven; your provision can come, your power can come, your significance can come because this is WHO you are and God has already said YES to all of that... Your persona is your permission to step outside the confines of your personality and into the fullness of God.”

My personality is the weak and frail one that makes excuses for mediocrity and failure. But my true identity in Him (persona) is called to greatness. My identity in Him is drawn to compassion and moved by others. My identity in Him rises up for justice and trusts His endless provision and peace. Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?” This wasn’t to get His identity from His disciples but to get them to realize who they were as His followers. To not wallow in their mediocrity and humanness but rise up to their destiny and calling in spite of their failure. 

Who do you say that He is? 

No comments:

Post a Comment