The first 25 years of my Christian life I thought my great message to the world was supposed to be how bad I was before I became a Christian compared to how good I am now. This was kind of hard for me, though, in that I became a Christian when I was five. A life of smoking, sleeping around, taking drugs and getting drunk is a little tough to pull off when you are four. Not to mention partying, going to movies, playing cards, and dancing. I was a regular four-year-old hell-raiser. I probably wouldn’t have lived to be six if Jesus hadn’t gotten a hold of me. See how silly this is?

Of course this little scenario didn’t work for people like me who had been Christians from childhood, but it still prevailed among stories others would tell and “miraculous” testimonies that got all the attention. Whether much of this thinking prevails today is not certain, but the idea it perpetuated, that Christians were good people — better than most — is still very strong today.

I can actually remember being jealous of people who had real nasty befores. I had no testimony at all, because as long as I can remember, I’d been good. Talk about being a good Christian, I was the model. All the other kids mothers used to tell their children, “Why don’t you be like John?”

It’s this kind of thinking that feeds the wrong notion that Christians are “squeaky clean,” and makes us all perpetuators of the “good Christian” model. As we found out yesterday, its the messy Christian that conveys the right message, but how many people are getting that message?

The messy Christian model is current. It’s not talking about how bad we were before we became a Christian (that’s easy to do); it’s talking about how bad we are right now. The messy Christian model isn’t very popular because it requires a level of honesty and transparency that not many people are willing to maintain. And yet, how else does God get the credit for His grace? It’s not a big deal; we just walk and talk, and while we talk, we talk about our doubts and fears, our sins, struggles.  When we do this, the Lord Himself shows up and we experience His grace and forgiveness, and so does anyone walking with us. But as you can see it requires humility, and a willingness to be in process — not done yet. We’ll never be done until heaven. It’s His presence in these messy, cracked earthenware vessels so there is no doubt where the power is coming from. (2 Corinthians 4:7)