struggle.

Anybody out there ever struggled?

I guess that's kind of life asking "Anybody out there ever seen the sun". We all struggle in so many ways.

It's hard, sometimes, to accept the fact that we do mess up. It's harder when we mess up often, which most of us do. Sin is so pervasive in our lives, so programmed into our very core, that we almost can't not screw up often. It's a part of our human nature.

So, how can we ever be practicing Christians if we mess up so often? How could we ever become holy, become sanctified, if we are just a problem waiting to happen. It seems like it becomes hopeless for the human race when we realize that there is nothing we can do to help along our perfection.

That's the beauty of it.

Jesus never said we would be perfect here, now, on this sin torn planet. He never said we would say the prayer and then "Bang! You're no longer a sinner." No, Jesus rather said Christianity was a hard road, one that is difficult. We're supposed to struggle. It's not meant to be easy.

Paul says "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." (Philippians 2:12-13, NIV) Work out your salvation with fear and trembling? What happened to the easy gospel of today? The one where Jesus does it all and we just live as we always live?

The truth is, that gospel never existed. Jesus didn't say "Hey, guys, listen. I've already given my blood, and that should cover up all of your sins forever, so go ahead, and live like you want, okay?" No, Jesus spoke again and again against complacency, against simply accepting sin. The life he advocated was one where you don't simply give in. You fight.

The idea of war, the relation of the Christian to a soldier, is most clearly seen in one of the most well known (and marketed, you could say) passages of scripture:

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." (Ephesians 6:10-13, NIV)

I may be a geek, but that totally reminds me of Aragon in the Lord of The Rings movies, when he gets up on his horse before the battle at the Gates of Mordor and he yells "I bid you stand, Men of the West!"

Christianity is all about the fight.

So why, if this is true, is the struggle looked so down upon in church today? Why is it that, if you struggle, and if you tell someone about this struggle, they instantly adopt a holier then thou attitude? Why do you suddenly become the twig of a Christian in a forest of Sequoias?

I'd say some of that is pride. Some of it, however, comes from this screwed up idea of ours that we have to have it all together to come to God, to be a "good Christian". Wrong. Nobody has it all together. And nobody will.

Check out Acts and the letters to the church. They were constantly messing up, constantly having to reinvent themselves, to change themselves, because they weren't perfect. And at no point in this did Paul say "Oh, you're struggling, church? There's no way you are all Christians." No, he admonished them. But usually, with this admonishment, came a praise of something they were doing right.

So Christians who are struggling can do something right? Really?

Another idea of the church is that if you are struggling, somehow God can't use you, or at least, not during the struggling time. Again, wrong. God delights in using works in progress. Abraham, Moses, David...the whole Old Testament is the story of screw-ups being used by an Almighty God to perform his will.

I'm not saying all this to say that you can live happily in sin. The key word in this whole talk is "struggle". If you are not struggling, then there is a problem. But if you are wrestling, fighting, in a constant match with the person you've left behind, you are in the right place as far as being a Christian. And just like wrestling and fighting will leave you stronger in your physical life, so it will make you a stronger Christian in your spiritual life.