gary

failures..beggars...success redefined

perhaps it is in our failures where we truly find the meaning of success. it teaches us to accept our own shortcomings, that not everything in life can be earned, and consequently and more importantly, it teaches us to receive...to accept help. it dissolves the pride from saying, "i can do" to saying, "i need help...thank you." it rearranges our perspective, that when we walk by a homeless person or beggar, it produces an acute awareness, a reflection of our own nature, that when we remove all the "successes" in our lives - our wealth, family, and education - we are no different than the person begging on the street. and maybe, just maybe, the beggar understands something far better than we do...he knows how to ask for help, to receive help, and to offer nothing in return. can you imagine it? to offer nothing in return, and to shamefully beg, plead, and cry out for help. it is truly humbling. yet at the core, that is what we all are, beggars: bankrupt, broken, and helpless. it speaks of the uneasiness within us, the intense loneliness and deep longing for something more...successes don't flesh that out, only failures do.

this is the beauty of the gospel!...when we come to recognize our inability to earn our ways to eternity, we come to a place of truly seeing our own falleness - we are beggars. we can only look up, to beg so to speak, and hope that somebody can help us...save us. and then amazingly, we behold God's hand stretched to us, His son, and gaze at the majestic King who descended into our lives. being a beggar, a failure, allows us to receive, to accept Christ's work, His successes as our own. it is not found in our own efforts, but completely provided by Him, on our behalf, and we can offer nothing in return. nothing! His life for ours. it gets better, God not only loves beggars, but also turns beggars into His children...children of the King - royalty. "i'm am undeserving! how can it be?" let me say it straight up, "you are undeserving! we all our undeserving! God's goodness, His grace and mercy, is how it can be." but be it far worst is not knowing how to receive this, to accept this as true - to believe that we are beggars, Christ gave His life for us, and we are our His children...and yes, that we can offer nothing in return! man, when we begin to swallow this, to digest it, than we truly begin to see success redefined. (hmm...if you have something stuck in your throat, swallow it. =P..and receive the gift that will never grow old)

gear

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Revelation 3:17-18

17You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

John 3:14-17

14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[f] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Ephesians 2:4-8

8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast.

1 John 3:1

1How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!

Posted by Gary at June 6, 2006 02:31 PM