Too Good to Be True

Tough women are savvy -- they know what's what.  They are not often conned.  They are suspicious because they have been fooled before. So I wasn't surprised to see that skeptical look in Heather's eyes:  skeptical and hopeful too.


What do you mean God sees me as perfect?  She wanted to know. How could that be?


It's a ridiculous concept for those of us who know we are sinners, who have committed some pretty awful acts in these bodies to think that God-- who is perfect and complete and, oh by the way,  the Creator of the Universe,  could accept us as equally perfect?


I mean, He could have pity.  He could say -- yeah, you're messed up, but I'll let you in Heaven anyway.  That I could understand.


But perfect?


Here's one verse in Colossians:  ...He has brought you into His own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before Him without a single fault.


Here's another:  God has utterly wiped out the written evidence of broken commandments, which always hung over our heads and has completely annulled it...


Ro 3:24 We are... freely pronounced righteous
 Utterly wiped out?  Completely annulled?  Holy and blameless?  Righteous? Without a single fault?








There are many more statements like that in the Bible:   too- good- to- be- true statements that any savvy, streetwise, skeptical tough woman would find a little hard to swallow.


What's the catch? Of course we all want to know that.  Everybody knows there is no free lunch -- nobody does nothing for nothing.


The catch is this:  you can't do anything to deserve it.  You can't work for it.  You can't earn it.  You can't compete for it.  You can't outdo someone else for it.  You can't give anything in exchange for it.  You can't DO anything.


That's enough to make a tough woman cry. 


Oh Jesus, here's the catch:  All you've got to do is let it happen.


You've got to be vulnerable.  You've got to be accepting.  You've got to be loved like you've never been loved in all of your hard-working, stressed-out, energy-sapping, heart-breaking life.


The stuff that happens after this acceptance?  That's not really up to you, either.  Once you've fallen in love, and taken His hand and said, "I do",  it's up to Him where we go next.  That's not so easy for the tough woman either.  We've been THERE before, we think to ourselves -- trusting someone who SAYS they'll take care of you but doesn't show up when it really counts.


This is different.  Remember?  When He sees you He sees nothing but love.  And -- oh by the way -- He's the Creator of the Universe.  What could go wrong?


(  Verses quoted in different versions:  Colossians 1:22, Col 2:14 , Romans 3:24)

Full Storage Space: Self-Condemnation takes up a lot of room

The one thing that always amazes me as I drive from my home in the country to the city -- the number of storage spaces.  It seems that wherever I go, new land is being cleared to develop large buildings where people store their stuff that doesn't fit into their homes.  I am not going to comment on what that's all about -- it's not my point today.

My point is that when we are full of guilt and condemnation,  there is no room for the good stuff that God wants to give us.

Tough women are full of self-condemnation, I have discovered.  We like to beat ourselves up over the past, over our mistakes, over the mis-use of our resources, over how we just spoke to the cashier...on and on... I believe the problem is thinking we have to store this stuff instead of just getting rid of it!

In the Bible study I lead (full of Tough Women inmates), we talk about all of this.  Today we're talking about integrity.  So, as the leader of the group,  I have to check whether or not I am clear of conscience -- and suddenly, I am reminded of something that I have been pushing away.  It's not a "big deal" as in "adultery" or "theft", but it is a small deal --- a little fudging of the truth, a little blurry line that I have not been paying attention to.  Back in the days of my drug addiction and rampant sexual behavior, it would have seemed like the least of my problems -- but today, it is there -- and I know it has been there for awhile, and I am also aware that its presence in my life has kept me from being totally available to God's Spirit working in me.  So what do I do with the awareness of the sin that has been running in the background for many months?

Here are some storage options: 

Stuff it like you do with those bags that you suck the air out of -- they make big things smaller, until you undo them.  I can just keep pushing it away from me.  Further and further back into the closet, piling it on top of other bags...
Archive the bad stuff -- like I do in my computer once a month. Just  zip up the files so they are smaller and take up less virtual space. 

The trouble is you always run out of room.  The trouble is it keeps coming back to overwhelm us.


The storage solution that  God offers is fairly straightforward:  

 1 John 1:9 -- confess your sins and he'll clean up the mess and toss it out for you.

Seems easy enough.  Say you're sorry and get on with your life. Don't keep putting it in storage. 

Assuming that we already knew this, what would be our reasons for storing instead of tossing? Here's a couple of possibilities:

We like the sin and we don't feel safe without it.  We think we might need it again, and we're not really ready to say "take it, Lord."

This was the case with the sin I ran into -- it is a self-preservation mechanism that makes me feel safe.  This feeling of unsafety is a welcome stronghold for Satan -- he loves to put his foot right in there and pry it open.  (God doesn't exist, he whispers -- God is angry with you.  God isn't looking out for your best interest.  He might overlook you.  You're too bad for Him to bother with; look at everyone else -- more important than you -- that He has to deal with...)

We like the condemnation --

The way that some enjoy torturing that little, painful corner of their cuticle is the same way some people like to remind themselves of all the horrible things they have done in the past.  It satisfies a strange longing to confirm the badness within.


Here's what we do when we allow ourselves to hold onto the sin in our lives, for whatever reason --
We use up good God space.

When we are occupied with stuffing sin into the back of the closet, we are not fully present.  We are not fully truthful.  We are not fully clean, and we can't completely fellowship with a perfect God.

This is not more fodder for self-condemnation -- to make you strive to be perfect.  The perfection does not come from our efforts, but only from our willingness to let God change us.  If we are holding on to something "safe", part of us is not holding on to Him.

The other thing is that God is good and He wants good for us. 

The tough woman self-preservation instinct has got to go.  We don't trust, and that's part of our make-up, but this is One we can trust.  This is One who really won't go away and leave us hanging.  This is One who doesn't just say "I love you".  He shows it every day.  He is the One we've been waiting for.

So give  Him the key to your storage unit, and believe He won't rip you off.

Aposematism: The Wrong Armor

Some tough women resemble certain animals in the wild:  they call attention to themselves with strange colors and designs -- purple hair stripes, endless tatoos, tongue, eye, and lip piercings --  not to attract, but to warn anyone coming near them that there may be a deeper danger lurking.
Tough women don't trust themselves not to let others get too close, so they put out every signal to keep them away.  In science, this  strategy is known as "aposematism"  -- the skunk's white tail, the strange odor from insects, the blowfish, twice its actual size -- all act as warnings.  Stay away from me, or you could really get hurt.

It gives the enemy time to pause and rethink its strategy, and gives the tough woman time to run in the opposite direction, to escape a potentially heart-breaking encounter.

Like the blowfish, we have been known to puff ourselves up dramatically -- full of sarcasm, hurtful words, biting jokes, gossiping, threats, betrayals -- anything to make us look fearless and foreboding.

Tough women need a tough armor.

But what I have come to understand is this:  Our armor is all wrong!  We think these methods of keeping others at bay will protect us from harm.  What God tells me is that His armor is so much better.

We must transfer the armor!

In Ephesians 4, we are told to put off those old, aposematic defenses -- anger, clamor, slander, filthy language --- these are techniques that let people know where we stand, who we are, and not to mess with us.  The trouble is, it's corrupt, it's decaying.  It doesn't hold up over time.  We are full of holes and easy targets.  Our emotions spill out all over everything, and we are not able so save ourselves.

Here's the armor that God gives us:  the helmet of salvation, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the sword of the Spirit, the shoes of peace.  He tells us to put on kindness, tender-heartedness, forgiveness,  joy, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.  There is not one hole left where we can be hurt.  This Redemption Love that He pours all over us seals us against any enemy who wants to attack.

We are covered with His oily, impenetrable Love armor.

But beware:  if you try to put on His armor over your old, corrupted, decaying armor the results will be something like what you found in your lunch box on Monday after you left it over the weekend.  You can't seal something like that.

You must put off the old stuff -- take off that slimy, worthless armor that has never given you anything but more stress and pain, and put on the new armor that God has designed just for you.  Designer Armor, if you will. This armor protects your tender heart.  It keeps the enemy from whispering those lies into your ear --
"You're not good enough."  "You're not smart enough."  "You're not able to keep this up. You're getting tired." 

God wants to teach us a whole new way to fight --

Tough women need a tough God.

Put off the works of the dark, arming ourselves with light -- Romans 13:12