Wavy Mullets Optional

As I look through the Bible at the type of people that God used to do incredible things for Him, it is easy to get discouraged for several reasons:

1. I am able to read in the Bible about the person's life in its entirety...I know how the story ends and how that person's life was used for future generations later on in the Bible.

2. Because that person is in the Bible, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that he/she had real struggles, real heartache, and was human.

3. My insecurities kick into to overdrive when I place my life up against any of these people.

As I look around me at a 2009 world, I see so many distortions of what a person must be/look like in order to be used greatly by God and for God.

DISTORTION #1:

To be used by God...men, you are not required to wear oversized toupees...women, you are not required to dye your hair pink.

DISTORTION #2:

To be used by God, you are not required to rock the latest in "Christian fashion."

DISTORTION #3:

To be used by God...women, you are not required to wear the Belk's makeup counter...men, the same goes for you!

DISTORTION #4:

To be used by God, you are not required to have perfectly white teeth coupled with a masterfully sculpted wavy mullet.

GOOD NEWS!!! All of these things are optional!

To me, the most encouraging verse in the Bible is James 5:17 "Elijah was a man just like us." Elijah was the man who commanded the rain to stop, raised the dead, prayed that fire would fall from Heaven...and it did, and was taken up to Heaven in a chariot of fire....no burns, no funeral. On the surface, it would seem like Elijah was so far out of our league, to say the least! Yet, James writes, "Elijah was a man just like us."

The question is not so much, "How much God do you have?" but rather, "How much of you does God have?" The fact is God WANTS to use each of us for His purposes. The variable in the equation is not God...it's us! This is the exact point where religion about God and a relationship with God dramatically part ways. A religion about God would take the statement, "The variable in the equation is not God...it's us!" and seek to "be better," "do more," "look the part," etc. These reactions are all about you and your adequacy...which will always come up short. A relationship with God would take the statement, "The variable in the equation is not God...it's us!" and respond in utter dependence upon God and complete surrender to God. These reactions are not about our adequacy to please God...or for that matter even our inadequacies...but about God's sufficiency in our lives. Elijah was a man who counted on God for everything, and God came through (as He always does!) far beyond anyone's (even Elijah's) expectations.

It is quite convicting to think that sometimes God does not use us more powerfully because we do not trust Him most fully with our moment-by-moment lives. Of course, today is a new day with new opportunities to be utterly dependent upon God and completely surrendered in every area of our lives to Him...but, that ball is in our court.

P.S.

To my Westside Jacksonville, FL friends and all the others I attend the Monster Truck Jam with every February...keep sculpting those mullets as you constantly and consistently give more and more of yourself over to God...I'll be with you soon cheering on Grave Digger and booing Maximum Destruction!