Have you ever had this thought: ‘I can’t help; I don’t have
all my ducks in a row either’? Well I have. You’ve, no doubt, heard the saying,
‘I’m just a beggar showing other beggars where to find bread.’ We should accept
this, realizing that the beggar is still
begging. I’ve often wondered if Peter felt like an idiot saying anything after he betrayed Jesus and
left his leader and friend to be killed all by himself. If I’m honest, if I
were Peter I might not say anything ever again in public. Mess-ups and failures
and sins are not the end; they are not what define those who are God’s
children.
Take it from one who has, messing up in life does not
disqualify you from helping others. Actually, if we are smart, we look to older
people who have messed up but kept going. Wisdom fears God and within that idea
is repentance, courage, hope, accepting God’s forgiveness, proceeding. If we
are tagged only by what we’ve failed at we will be of no help to others.
We sin. I hate sinning. It sucks the life out of everyone. But
it isn’t the end. Jesus said so when he woke up from the grave. Life together with
God is the end. Though all may be against you today, God is for you. And that
gives us reason to help out our co-beggars. The bible doesn’t say we must be
without fault before we can give a parched person some water; God doesn’t say, ‘You
better have all your spiritual ducks in a row before you forgive that person!!’
No, the sinning and screwing up does not need to be our life pattern anymore and
if we have a way of encouraging another who is walking this difficult path we
should use it, for ‘we all have gone astray, everyone to his own way’ and ‘there
is no one who is righteous, not even one.’
So do you have that friend who you can help today? Don’t
grow your past faults by withdrawing, go and help. We must not want others to experience
the fire as we have. This is to love others more than yourself.
