Today’s Scripture Reading (January 29, 2020): Isaiah 6
We resemble the people with whom we share time.
I remember being on a health kick a few years ago, and a well-meaning gentleman
offered some nutrition advice that had “worked for him.” I listened intently to
my acquaintance until I realized that, as impossible as this might sound to
those who know me, what he was feeding his body was worse than what I was feeding
mine. Why would I take dieting advice from someone who was worse off than me?
Yet, the truth is that we do this all the time –
and not just in the area of our diet. Too often, we place our trust where it
really doesn’t belong. Even the counselors that we pay to help us get our lives
straight are actually just theorists working out their own imperfections. I
remember talking with a professional marriage counselor who was working and often
seemed to be failing at his third marriage. It probably isn’t that he didn’t
know how to build a healthy marriage, but the application of the principles seemed
to escape him.
As Christians, we are not experts at spiritual
life. In fact, if you find a teacher who prides themselves in their spiritual
knowledge, run in the other direction. We are all daily working out our own salvation.
One of my favorite quotes continues to be from a Ceylonese Pastor named D. T.
Niles; “Christianity is one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread.”
Isaiah comes before the living God, and the
panic wells up from inside of him. In the presence of God, he realizes how
beggarlike he really is. Isaiah is not God, not an equal to God, not even someone
who deserves to be in the presence of God. In the presence of the angels, he
recognizes that he does not measure up to them either. The angels came before
God in great humility, with wings that covered their face and their feet. But
the angels were pure enough to cry out Holy, holy, holy” in the presence of the
living God. Isaiah was a man of unclean lips. The words “Holy, holy, holy”
directed at the God of the universe sounded perverse coming from his mouth. I
love Isaiah’s description of himself. “I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of
unclean lips.” I don’t mean to, but I know that this is true; I have come to
resemble the people with whom I live. I am nothing more than a beggar. I don’t
deserve to be in the presence of the king, someone who is so different from me
that we couldn’t even find a starting point for our relationship.
I am undone. But believe it or not,
being “undone” is not actually a bad thing. With God, it is a good starting
point. Being undone means that all of the illusions have been removed, and we
are laid bare. In the presence of God, our identity as a beggar is confirmed in
a way that is not revealed when we stand in the presence of each other. But,
lucky for us, our God is the king who welcomes beggars and calls them his sons
and daughters.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah
7
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