Every now and then I get the guts to do a true self-evaluation to see where I stand in life. I mean a real honest, down to the core evaluation. One that doesn't come with excuses, pity, pride, or any self-esteem issues. Just cut and dry, here's the facts and nothing else. I take that information and measure it against the “EXPECTED” to see where I stand. A saying I've been known to repeat is; Never mistake effort for results and in the evaluation process this is where you must separate the two. It's a little harsh sounding on the surface, but in the business world it's a great reminder for your staff to stay focused on the bottom line. I believe too often in our walk through life we merely take into consideration our efforts and rarely the results we produce. We convince our self that effort is the measuring stick, but is this accurate? Do we look at others with that same viewpoint? Do we say Mr. President, you haven't done a single thing you said you would during the campaign, but you've tried hard, so that's good enough, you've got my vote for re-election. Or to your mechanic; “Well, Henry you didn't fix my car, but I know you tried really hard, so here's my $1,200.00, have a blessed day.”
Recently I mustered up the nerve to do a very truthful self-evaluation and I came away from the experience not very pleased with where I stand. No, it wasn't a beat yourself up thing, rather it was a honest acknowledgment that I have a lot of room for improvement in my walk through life, and the time I have left to implement these improvements is growing shorter by the day, so I had better get started soon. Mere effort, ain't cutting it, I need more results in my life!
In business over the years I've had the responsibility to manage a lot of folks. There were years where I had hundreds of employees spread across many states, so I had to also have a lot of really good managers working under me as well. I've had the opportunity to recruit, hire and train a lot of talented managers because of this and one of the most important philosophies I shared with them over the years was this very simple sounding point; You can't hold someone accountable for their performance until you are sure they understand your expectations. In other words, if a manager doesn't communicate his / her's expectations well enough for their employees to understand it, they can't rightfully expect anyone to live up to those standards, it just wouldn't be fair.
My point with all of that is this, during my so called self-evaluation the other day what I did first was start with a clear understanding of the EXPECTATIONS I was evaluating myself against. So, I dusted off my Bible (clue number 1) and began making notes of the many EXPECTATIONS Jesus communicated to us long ago. Then I took a real hard look at what the evidence of my life said as to how I've been doing in those areas. As I said earlier, when the dust settled, I wasn't very pleased with where I stood. If this was translated into the business realm, I probably wouldn't get fired, but I sure wouldn't be receiving a pay increase either. If He were a tough boss, like I was at times, I may even get placed on probation until my performance started to consistently show signs of improvement. Like I said, every now and then I get the guts to do one of these evaluations. Being really, really honest with yourself is a tough pill to swallow at times. I guess that's why so many rarely, if ever put themselves through such a process. We'd rather walk around feeling good about ourselves, rather than buckling down and working hard on the areas of improvements in our lives. At least I know I would – most of the time, anyway.
As for the title of this journal item, Seriously, you call yourself a Christian, just as we shouldn't go around calling ourselves Plumbers if we've never roughed in a bathroom, or a Truck Driver if we don't have clue what it means to double-clutch, I don't believe we should go around calling ourselves Christians if our lives doesn't demonstrate Christ-like characteristics. I don't know about you, but that seems like a reasonable premise to me. Many years ago I worked as a janitorial supply salesman, but I don't go around telling people today I sell toilet paper. So it is with Christianity I believe. Maybe one day, long ago someone who didn't even know you could look at your life and say, now there goes a real Christian, (whatever that might be) but could they draw that same conclusion today? I'm not suggesting we can lose our “saved” status, I'm simply asking are we meeting the EXPECTATIONS Christ has for his followers with our daily life - today? Do we still sell toilet paper or not? It's a simple question! And if we do, how well are we doing?
When looking at the EXPECTATIONS we should be comparing our so-called performance to, it's so easy to simply look at what we call the Beatitudes to see how we measure up. Blessed are the poor – Yep, I'm doing really good with that one, Blessed are the meek - Again, that's me, well at least until it's obvious I'm right about something and I want to point out to everyone just how right I really am - again. Blessed are the peacemakers - Oh yeah that's me – as long as my wife does things my way there's peace alright. Blessed are the etc, etc, - Yep - me, me , me. Hey this isn't such a tough process after all. I should do this more often, I 'm starting to feel pretty good about myself. I should be able to throw this Bible back on the shelves for another month or two, I'm doing so well.
Here's the real test though, let's take a closer look throughout the Gospels and see exactly what Jesus says about the EXPECTATIONS He has of those wanting to call themselves his followers. Here's just a few of the ones I found during this process, but as you already know there are many, many more.
In Matthew 4:1 the very first thing the scripture tells us that Jesus preached was, Turn from your sin and turn toward God. Ask yourself this one, Have I truly turned away from the things that I know that are not pleasing to God? Yes, those things that only I know about, those things that have taken on resident status in our minds that we would never ever want anyone else to know about. Those things we do or say when other “Christians” aren't around. On a scale of 1 - 5 where are you?
Here's another good one, Matthew 5:20 Obey God more so than the preachers and teachers. Now that one might require some thinking. After all the folks in the pulpits and our favorite best-selling authors is where we get our understanding of what Jesus' EXPECTATIONS are. Does that mean we're going to have to start reading our Bibles more, or praying more on our own? Geez, I don't know about that one! It's much easier just listening to others tell us how we should live out our lives, after all if they're wrong, we'll have an excuse; But, Pastor Bob told me if I do this or that I'll be okay. Well, Pastor Bob might be right on the money, but you may just want to read a little of what Jesus said for yourself just in case.
Matthew 5:23 reconcile yourself to one another. I can hear the brakes screeching already. This is crazy. I don't need all of this guilt crap dumped on my self-esteem. That's not what Jesus meant! Let's be honest here, how many folks can you name right off the top of your head that you need some sort of reconciliation with. Yes, include all those that you think need to be the one's doing the apologizing! 1 – 5 how you doing?
Now, let's really get down to where the rubber meets the road. Mark 8:34 (from the Amplified version) And Jesus called to Him the throng with His disciples and said to them, If anyone intends to come after Me, let him deny himself, forget, ignore, disown, and lose sight of himself and his own interests and take up his cross, and joining Me as a disciple and siding with My party, follow with Me continually, cleaving steadfastly to Me. Again, on a scale of 1 – 5 how are you doing with that whole deny your own interests thingy Jesus was talking about here? Me neither! Key word He used - continually! Just as Jesus said to Peter in the verse right before this same scripture in Matthew, (Matt. 16:23) Seeing things through a human's point of view rather than God's is a dangerous trap. We often excuse away the real truth of this scripture by looking at what Jesus said through a humanistic viewpoint as opposed to the true level of righteousness he was referring to here. Lose sight of our self, our self interests - the truth is most of us really struggle with this one! In my entire life I've only known one or two 5's in this category, how bout you?
Mark 10:21 (from the New Living translation) Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Oh, get out of here, Jesus didn't mean that we should all sell our stuff and give it to the poor! How ridiculous! Okay, maybe He didn't, but He did say it would be awful tough for the “rich” to get through the gate dragging all that stuff they couldn't bare to leave behind. Here's a challenge to see just how honest you are with this one; Take a look around the house and pick out just one item that you really, really do like and take it down to your local pawn shop, get what you can for it, and then take the cash and give it to someone standing on the street corner begging for money, or find a young mother trying to raise two kids on her own, or an elderly person in line at the pharmacy using up the last of their monthly income to pay for the prescriptions they need - then just let go and give 'em the money. Afterward, come back, and put our self down for a 2 or 3 for that category, because we've just demonstrated the minimum, (remember this was just one item, out of our houses of plenty). Like the widow and her two mites, it ain't about the amount, it's about the condition of the heart of the giver. Luke 12:15 Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”
Luke 12:48 But someone who does not know, and then does something wrong, will be punished only lightly. When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with even more, even more will be required. You see, we love to change this scripture over to mean something it doesn't say, Jesus isn't talking about money and material possessions here, He's talking about knowledge - knowledge or right from wrong. And yes, we are the ones that have been entrusted with even more. What are we doing with the knowledge of right and wrong He has given us? Does our lives show that we are living up to His EXPECTATIONS in this area? Oh yes, by all means I believe we should go ahead and see how we're doing with this EXPECTATION as if it did include money and material possessions since even the least of us (Americans) reading this is considered to be in the top 3% of the richest in the world. Luke 11:28 Jesus replied, “But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice.” More blessed than who, who is He talking about here? He was talking about His own mother, Mary. The mother of our Savior, the one some denominations consider to be blessed more so than any other woman who ever lived. But what does Jesus say? Why will these followers be more blessed than his own mother, because they hear the word, and put it into practice. Can you declare you're blessed more than Mary because you meet Jesus' EXPECTATIONS in this area?
Luke 6: 37 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. Let's just skip that one.....
Luke 17:3 - 4 So watch yourselves! “If another believer sins, rebuke that person; then if there is repentance, forgive. Even if that person wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and asks forgiveness, you must forgive.” That one too!
Luke 6: 27 – 30 “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back. Matter of fact, let's just skip the rest of Luke all together. It's getting a little sticky here with all this forgiveness, and loving those that mistreat you, blah, ba, blah, ba, blah. Let's face it, we're simply not cut out for those kinds of EXPECTATIONS are we?
John 3: 6 - 8 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” On a scale of 1-5 does your life – (talking daily life here) resemble one that has been birthed by the Holy Spirit? What about when we're clocked in at work? When we're around only non-Christians? When we're in the stands at a ballgame? When we're home all alone? I may be wrong here, but I don't believe it's something that can be set aside when we simply don't feel like living up to the EXPECTATIONS of Christ, or when it might make us look out of place, or uncool, or merely because we think we are getting away with it, such as not paying all of our taxes. We're either reborn to a new way of living by the Holy Spirit, or we're not.
Okay, enough already! This could go on forever - and maybe it should. Maybe we should daily examine our lives (I think that's in the scriptures as well) and see if we're hitting the mark, or meeting Jesus' EXPECTATIONS of His followers. Self-evaluation is hard, but only if you're willing to be completely honest with yourself. Just as in the business world, a self-evaluation of your life isn't a process designed to “beat your self up, rather it's a way of recognizing our strengths and identifying those areas where we need to improve. For in the end don't we all want to be able to hear Him say with pride that we've been a good and faithful follower.
I'll end this lengthy journal item with the same words Paul ends the 5th chapter of Galatians with.
So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.
Let this be the final area of our self-evaluation. Let it be about self-control, let it be about living a life that honors the One we claim to follow, let it be about the true love we have in our hearts for God and our fellow man, let it be about His EXPECTATIONS - or let us be unafraid to continue asking our self the tougher question, Seriously, you call yourself a Christian? doug
