How would you treat yourself differently if you really believed that God is working through you?
Sometimes that can be a very hard thing to believe. We feel comfortable confessing that God is at work in those really exceptional, saintly people: the Mother Theresas or the Archbishop Tutus. Or maybe we’re willing to admit that God might be at work in people with outstanding skills or expertise: brilliant scientists or inspired musicians. Or maybe we are comfortable thinking that God is at work through the powerful people — surely, we might think, it was God who put them in that position, and for a reason. But God working through me? Well, maybe that will happen one day, when I get better at praying or patience or love. When I get good enough.
At the 2018 ELCA National Youth Gathering in Houston, Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber preached to a crowd of 30,000 teenagers:
[There’s a] burden that we carry of always knowing the difference between, like, our ideal self and our actual self…But if you think about it, no one’s ever become their ideal self. It’s a moving target. It’s a false promise. Your ideal self is a lie…Your ideal self doesn’t exist. The self that God has a relationship to is your actual self. The self God loves is your actual self. And there’s a word for this, and that word is “grace.” [You can view the whole sermon here.]
Martin Luther taught that God’s grace makes us — miraculously — saints and sinners at the same time. Yeah, of course we do wrong things, and we’re prideful and sometimes mean and whatever our particular flaws might be. But at the same time, the Holy Spirit is in us, forgiving us, leading us, working through us to build God’s kingdom and share God’s love…even though we’re also going to go on being imperfect and un-ideal for our whole lives. Even the most saintly of us.
As a pastor I’m in a privileged position to see how true this is. Throughout my career people have privately shared their struggles with me: their failures, their insecurities, their doubts, even their sins. I’m honored that people trust me with those hidden, broken parts of themselves. Then I see those same broken-down, struggling people being empowered by God: to make meals for grieving families; to deliver food and supplies to people in need; to go on service trips; to lead people in worship; to pray for others. I get reminded all the time that God is not waiting for us to get more perfect to onboard us to God’s mission team: God is working in us just as we are. God gives us on-the-job training.
So, how would you treat yourself differently if you really believed that God is working through you? Would you give yourself more grace? Would you feel more empowered to do the work God is calling you to do? Would you let yourself think that you do have something important to offer this world? Would you recognize what you have to offer — great strengths and little skills and even weaknesses — as holy things that God can and does work through?
And then: how would you treat the people around you differently if you could better recognize how God is working through them?
– Pastor Kate
Rev. Katherine Museus and Rev. James A. Wetzstein serve as university pastors at the Chapel of the Resurrection at Valparaiso University and take turns writing weekly devotions.
