Stumbling Follower

What is different about a Christian doctor compared to any other doctor? The world would say nothing really. But I think that truly it is everything. It’s the same that sets apart a Christian plumber, or teacher, or lawyer, or politician, or mother, or any other job or title description that comes behind it. God has changed us. Everything is different.

And yet, I struggle with this many times. There are times I completely fail. I’m not very different in some situations than any other doctor would be. There are times when I don’t love well, don’t respond well, times when I am overcome by circumstance rather than seeing that God has a plan in the midst of the circumstance.

Christians are supposed to wake up in the morning, realizing that His mercies are new. When we view the world around us, we should see from a view more clearly distinguishing purpose and value. When we work, we ought to do it with all the strength within us. Eating, playing, loving, giving – everything should look different.

And yet, we don't live perfect lives apart from the struggles that all other humans face. Every day it is not easy to see where God’s hands have been at work. Our flaws are still quite noticeable, and we are full of failures day in and day out. But in the middle of it all, the Christian looks up to trust a God unseen. One who calls us His children. He has displayed His love for us through Christ, and has forgiven us based on His own righteousness. But now He calls us to come out, to be separate from the rest of the world. To follow after Him. We struggle, we stumble, but we follow.

As we struggle in the midst of all the hard times in life, we sometimes feel like His hand isn’t there sheltering us. But if we could only see, that it is then shaping us more than in the easy times. That He is in the middle of molding us into something that actually does look like Him and reflect Him into the world. It hurts to be shaped and refined. Often we would rather stay just like we are than take the pain of His improvements. But we are His, and His plans for us are better than to let us stay impure and rough. He is making something that will actually show His glory.

If it is His hand that hurts as it shapes us, then let us delight to receive from Him.

Lord, create in us something that makes You smile.