Does it really matter?

Several times this week, I have told people that we need to let what matters matter.  Why is it so difficult for us to stay focused on what really matters?  In our relationships?  In our work?  In our relationship with God?  I am sure you have heard the description of someone that they major in what’s minor.  I think that describes most Christians.  We major in what really doesn’t matter.

Jesus confronted the Pharisees with their pettiness over His not washing his hands before a meal.  Apparently, his mother never taught Him any better; or maybe He just was looking for an opportunity to get into a debate with the Pharisees over their religious practices.  He went on to chastise them over their placing a burden upon the people by demanding they comply with rules and regulations that they themselves couldn’t even follow to the level of perfection they demanded.  Paul confronted the same problem in Galatia.  He wrote to the church there, that they needed to quite trying to justify themselves by their doing the right things.  The only thing that really mattered, he wrote, was “faith expressing itself through love (5:6).”

We can’t make ourselves any more righteous or any more significant by doing.  Yet, I find as I work with even those in positions of leadership in the church that they are focused more upon their doing than their being.  Our focus needs to be on our being…being more like Jesus.  We seem to appreciate that we are not saved by our works; yet, we seem to think we must prove that we are worth the sacrifice of God’s Son after the fact.  Nothing we can do on our own really matters.  The only thing that matters, as Paul wrote, is trusting God as He leads us to demonstrate His love to those around us, in the same way Christ demonstrated the love of the Father through His life and His death.

It is nothing but a distraction to think that we need to focus all our attention on doing what is right.  I have a sign in my office that states, “It is exhausting masquerading as a normal person day after day.”  Let’s stop the pretense.  We are not normal.  We are not good.  We are not capable of doing enough to be worth what the Lord did for us at Calvary.  But, we can share His love with others around us. Nothing else matters.  But, that does.

Godspeed, Phil