SO YOU AREN'T IDEAL

So you realize every day you are not ideal.

Take a good stab at it. Who do you think is ideal?

Mike Cope?

Nope.

Randy Harris?

Ah, nope.

Jeannine Reese?

Nope.

Keith Lancaster? Rick Atchley? Truitt Adair?

Nope. Nope. Nope.

No one is ideal. Only Jesus is. So how do we function? We pool our gifts and pray He use us.

I met with a man this morning borderline homeless. In a few more days, I would guess such is his destination. I've helped him a couple of times in recent months with gas money.

He can't find work. He's a humble sort. I believe his story.

When he sat in my office this morning I listened to his case. When he finished I told him two things:

1. I would give him the money he needed. I had more than he needed in my billfold and it was tucked in there for such an occasion.

2. I told him I wanted him to know something. I wanted him to know that I could see he was a valuable man. I expressed that when one can't find work and then they have to go into a church to scrape up money, one is possibly going to assume themselves useless.

I went on to tell him it didn't matter if he ever showed back up at this church but I wanted him to get to some church so that the unique gift God had buried in him could be shared. I told him God's people need him.

Be encouraged. None of us are ideal. Our flaws glare at times. But we have the God-element in us enough to see the value in one another and in strangers. Speak up. People who are down on themselves need to run into others who see that some sense of goodness remains in them.