our intentions

"Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold -- but so does a hard-boiled egg."

Let me start by saying that I absolutely love this day. Easter is the accumulation of what God desired for us all along. And I worship Him for this perfect day that we celebrate! It is a joyous celebration with our family and the body of Christ. It's a day full of good eats and photo-ops! Easter Sunday morning has always been, at least in the South, a day that the ladies can wear their beautiful dresses, the gentlemen their finely pressed suits and the little baby girls their lace-trimmed bonnets. (My baby girl looked especially sweet in hers!) Even I got in on the action this morning and broke out my sweater vest/necktie combo! Everyone has, indeed, shown up to worship our Lord in their very best with every detail raked over with a fine-toothed comb. And their efforts have paid off - everyone looks absolutely stunning!

But as I get settled in after a great day of worship and ham-mashed tater-roll sandwiches, I loosen my tie and and think to myself, why isn't every day like Easter Sunday morning? No I don't want to get all gussied up every day - I don't have that many sweater vests! What I mean to say is, shouldn't we go over our lives with a fine-toothed comb? Shouldn't we strive to present our very best to our Lord and Savior every moment of the day?

While the lunch ladies at Luby's might be easily fooled by our outward pin-stripped appearance, our God is certainly not. He sees us for how we are. While many might show up to Sunday worship in an Armani suit, God sees their lives the rest of the week. And sadly, I believe that for many of us, He sees our lives and we're clothed in mere rags. I think that we dress our lives up thinking that the Creator will look down from Heaven and be fooled. Our suits consists of going to church every Sunday, volunteering to say grace at an afternoon luncheon, not drinking, smoking, cursing, or hanging out with folks that do, wearing t-shirts that are cleverly Christian, and, lastly, just "living a good life". To me those things seem to be footy pajamas, simple deeds we put on as toddlers in the faith. So often, though, we become perfectly suited to our meager attempt to appear holy. But that is not holiness nor is God impressed. Why do we wait to be patted on our heads for things that we don't do or for doing things that we enjoy?

Everyone's intention on Easter Sunday morning is to show up looking prestine and to impress those around them. We're looking for others to look at us and say "Wow you look great!" And while that is perfectly nice, shouldn't we be more concerned how God sees us. While I might show up in my dandiest suit, most of the time I'm dressed in blue jeans and a wrinkled shirt. My day to day dress does not coincide with my Sunday morn attire. My intention is to look debonaire and suave, but on the other side of noon I'm neither of those things. I think that quite often my spiritual life is a lot like this as well. I wake up fired up to do God's work but when I arrive to face the day the reality of a coward's life presents itself. An unfaithful soldier comes marching in. Sure....I'm dressed the part....ready to serve in battle but when the time is ready, I stand at ease.

I'm ready to stop only appearing to be a Christian and start putting my life where my mouth is. Christ took my place on the cross. I deserve to be the one being beaten across my back and to be nailed to a tree. My clothes should be blood stained but because of Him, my God sees me washed white as snow. So with that I pray to be done with this former life. Clearly, by the grace of God, I'm not suited for a life as a poser.