God Is Ok with You Not Being Ok
They say you should never meet your heroes, but the scriptures let us see everything about our "heroes of the faith." When we look closely, we don't see heroes at all. We see broken people whom God used powerfully, redemptively, and purposely. We want to see Joseph as someone with a "heroic" rise out of the pit and into a position of influence. We say, "I want to be like that!" We want to overcome our pasts and achieve bright futures for ourselves. But if we read the story carefully, we will find Joseph's journey isn't as linear and upward as we might want. Joseph's past continues to impact him, and his journey is far from complete. All is not well with Joseph (Gen 41:51-52). But God is ok when he isn't ok. God's redemptive purposes are not hindered by Joseph's stumbling. Because with grace, you always stumble forward.
God's redemptive purposes are not hindered by Joseph's stumbling. Because with grace, you always stumble forward.
Christian heroism is dangerous. Paul even warns his churches about it (1 Cor 1:10-17). If we build our faith on the idea our lives should be in a constant linear upward direction, then when we falter, we'll do real damage to our souls. Our stumbles will become crises of faith. We'll frantically try to diagnose ourselves spiritually. We'll heap on shame and guilt. Make resolves we can't keep and put pressures on ourselves that our Good Father would never want for us. We'll put on a mask so that we can hide our hurting, and we'll spend enormous amounts of energy managing our status. We carry all of this heavy spiritual anxiety over our imperfections, flaws, and woundedness because we are clinging to only half of the Christian hope. The true Christian hope is that we can rest assured in the finished work of God in Christ while we await his return and the restoration of all things. There are two parts of the Christian hope - already and not yet. God has already secured our redemption in Christ (Rom 8:31-39), and we are still awaiting this final redemption (Eph 2:1-10). We love the first part, but we often forget the second one.
We carry all of this heavy spiritual anxiety over our imperfections, flaws, and woundedness because we are clinging to only half of the Christian hope.
The second part of this hope is crucial to our peace and joy as Christians. The "not yet" part of you is a part of God's plan. The part of you that is not yet fully healed or whole is part of God's redemptive purposes for you. Until you can accept that the "not yet" part of you has already been accepted and known by God, you will be unable to find peace or healing amid your woundedness. The Joseph story reminds us of this truth. God never uses completed people. He only ever works with "not yet" people. God is faithful and intentional with the parts of us that are "not yet" as they ought to be because God is ok with us not being ok (Rom 7:7-21). Your woundedness doesn't destroy God's plan for you, it is a part of it. To think differently is to not understand the whole Christian hope.
God never uses completed people. He only ever works with "not yet" people.
So why do we feel so much pressure to be the hero of our spiritual journeys? Well, because we haven't learned to trust grace yet. Facing our pasts can be difficult. Accepting our pain and woundedness is never easy. And here is where the first part of the Christian hope is now vital for us. Trusting what God has already done in Christ means our future is set. We can know that however dark the past seems, or however deep our wounds run, they will not have the last word in our lives. They can't. They can't overcome you any more than death could overcome Christ. This is what it means to be in Christ. We can find the courage to heal from our pasts and accept our shortcomings because we know Christ has secured our overcoming them through His love for us.