The Dilemma
At the end of a story of bad behavior and a broken heart, she asked me, "Do you believe people can change?" It might seem trite, but this conversation demonstrates how Jesus and the message of the Gospel are at the heart of our most important questions.
How could this conversation about a young woman's broken heart and the puzzling behavior of her former boyfriend have a connection to Advent?
As it turns out, Advent is the very reason I could say to my friend, "Yes, I believe people can change." But mine is not a glib or uninformed answer. I have made more than my share of mistakes in life, some of them incredibly substantial and hurtful to myself and others. I have also been on the receiving end of other people's mistakes and bad behavior. Humans are equally flawed, and I believe, based on the truth of scripture, equally incapable of changing ourselves.
But this human inability to change ourselves is not the end of the story. If it were the end of the story, we would be a pitiable lot, destined to continue spiraling downward into our own behavioral missteps and flaws of character. The interruption to this sad human tale is the incarnation of God Himself, who chooses of His own free will to give up His position at the right hand of God to become a human. This is the baby born to a woman named Mary, whose name was to be Jesus; or Immanuel, which means, "God with us."
Some see Jesus as only a gifted and powerful teacher, or rabbi. He was that. Others of us know Him to be the promised one that God would send to us. The Messiah. The one sent to deliver us.
From what does Jesus deliver us? From oppression? From earthly struggles and pain? From a corrupt or oppressive political system?
In the end, the answer to all of these questions does become, "yes." But today, in the here and now, Jesus comes for me. He comes for you. He comes for your life. Your heart, and your soul He comes to deliver you from....well....You. If Jesus doesn't have you first of all, all of these other deliverances will matter very little.
In the moment when we recognize Jesus as the Son of God, the Deliverer, our very personal Savior and Lord...when we acknowledge our need for Him, and for a power greater than ourselves to transform our human flaws... It is in that very moment that Jesus Himself reaches across the spiritual gap between us; He offers to us a love so perfect, a power so unmatched by any human force, it is His presence in our lives that brings power to change those things we cannot change in ourselves.
Does the dilemma of our failings and flaws disappear suddenly? Not really, no. Not for most of us, anyway. Yes, I've heard stories of drunks and drug addicts who experience sudden deliverance, and I absolutely believe their stories to be true. Others of us continue to struggle as we work in concert with God's grace to mature and be ever more conformed to the image and character of Christ.
Between Protestants and Catholics there has often been a debate framed as "Grace or Works?" I would suggest a different perspective altogether, and that is: grace is work. To live into the grace of God that comes for us and delivers us;to know the God who seeks us out to know us, to save us, and to ultimately transform us. We must participate in the relationship, in the journey, and in the commitment to transformation. This journey of grace is our life's work.
That each of us are born with unique traits, characteristics, and personalities is a gift from God. And yet for each of us, our individual package of personality comes with both beauty and brokenness. To suggest otherwise is to deny part of ourselves, for we are, all of us, a combination of good and bad. Without Jesus, we may struggle with our brokenness or deny it...but it remains a part of who we are.
With Jesus, the dilemma of our shortcomings remains, but we find a source of grace and power to truly transform the broken places, and move us toward a place of beauty.
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