Mud Pies

Read:  1 Peter 1:12-23

The beauty of nature captivates me and going to explore breath-taking beautiful places is one of my greatest joys.  Give me a day at beach, with magnificent ocean waves breaking on the shoreline, the sun sparkling on the tiny bits of broken seashells in the sand, and the warmth of the sun on my face. Nothing could be more grand!!

But what if I have been given a gift, a 7 night stay at a luxury resort next to the ocean, and I chose not to actually GO?  Wouldn’t that be crazy??

Today’s reading says, “Prepare your minds for ACTION . . . set your HOPE FULLY on the GRACE that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ!”

We have been given such sweet, undeserved grace, completely washed clean, radiantly restored to the perfection we were created for!  We ALREADY ARE MADE HOLY in God’s sight.

Yet, while we still live in these earthly bodies, we know we are not all we should be, we are NOT YET the Holy ones God has created us to be. 

So we live in this dichotomy of ALREADY and NOT YET! 

While we live in our ALREADY and NOT YET, Paul is urging us to “BE HOLY,” set apart, ransomed from our futile ways.

C.S. Lewis put it this way in his book “The Weight of Glory.”

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Lord Jesus, Thank you for Your Amazing Grace, that You have already claimed me and called me Holy!  Help me not to be content to continue making mud pies in the futility of a self-center, sin filled life.  Instead, lead me to joyfully want to play with You in Your grand, magnificent design for my life and for Your redeeming work for in this world!