In her book, Accidental
Saints: Finding God in the all the wrong people, Nadia Bolz-Weber writes of
how she thinks that "we're in a time in the life of the church where
stories of failure are so much more important than stories of success"
(203). That goes against the grain for a
lot of folks in the church, doesn't it?
We're always promoting the folks that succeed, getting them up-front to
tell their stories.
I'm not sure Jesus is always in that, though. The Church is
filled with ordinary "Jars of clay" (See 2 Corinthians 4:7), who
struggle with their humanity and their faith, every day. These folks will, most likely, never be
invited to share their story on some great stage. Not everyone among us has bestseller
stories. We'll never be asked to go on
tour, telling our story that sets audiences on fire with motivation. That's too bad, too, because our Scriptures
tell us that God shows up best in weak people, everyday folks who have stories
of a thousand different kinds; real people who are broken and bruised and
wounded and beaten down by life and who go about their lives, as best they can,
with their eyes fixed on Jesus (Heb. 12:2), seeking to be faithful to the God
who has come into the "earthen vessels" of their humanity and poured
into them the "treasure of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:7).
The problem with "up-front and paraded sainthood"
is that those who don't have dramatic stories are shuffled out of the way so
that those with great stories can take center stage. Also, where did we come up with this
show-and-tell Christianity? Shouldn't it
be that if Jesus has so changed your life that it merits, in the eyes of some,
notoriety, promotion, books and speaking tours, that it would better serve the
kingdom by getting down in the trenches and living out the implications of the
Faith among the hurting, the disenfranchised, the broken and lost?
Don't get me wrong. I love a good story. I love a solid rock
testimony. I love what Jesus does in the
lives of people, and I thoroughly enjoy hearing all about it. I just feel we need to be extraordinarily
careful not to disenfranchise believers whose stories aren't the dramatic kind
that can wow an audience.
The truth is that all of our stories are dramatic if Jesus
has succeeded in wooing us to the Father so that the Father can pour into us
the wonders of His amazing grace. Every
story is a miracle; every one of them.
Each story is so miraculous that on the day any one of us embraced the
embrace of God and came into the open arms of our Savior, heaven rejoiced (see
Luke 15:10).
We have the treasure of Jesus Christ in jars of clay (2 Cor.
4:7) which means that everyone of us in Christ can sing with John Newton,
Amazing grace! how
sweet the sound
that saved a wretch
like me!
I once was lost, but
now I'm found;
was blind, but now I
see."
And Jesus said on our behalf, "Amen."
