In light of some recent conversations I've had with a few different friends, here's a quote that I find both a challenge and a comfort..
“We do better to put saints on windows than on pedestals, for we are not meant to focus on them but to see through them to God who stands beyond." (when I first found it, the quote was credited to Saint Augustine, but I can't find proof.. no se)
If you have ever known me in a teaching setting, one of my favorite things to do is to make sure the information comes alive.. Whether it's a history lesson or a Bible story; a song lyric or a poem, I want it to be more than just words on a page.. I want you to understand that it really happened! It's someones experience that had a life attached to it.. it's not just a fairy tale (ok, songs and poems can be, but I'm talking abt the circumstances of the author that wrote it)..
I find myself on that pedestal from time to time by well meaning people - and I want to say "I'm just like you!" I'm human, I make mistakes, I'm not perfect..
But then I find myself pushing others up on to that same pedestal I so desperately try to get off of, and I think to myself - isn't it ironic? The very thing I want to do, I don't, and those things I don't want to do, I do - who will save me from myself? .. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ for his deliverance! (my paraphrase of the end of Romans 7..)
When I remember that the highest end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever - and that through other people, I get to see a deeper glimpse of who God is - I find myself offering a hand up to those I've placed on pedestals to help them step down off of it, and offering a hand down to those who've set me up on it to pull them up to a place of level ground..
Soli Deo Gloria
:D
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