Living Transparent

I did not choose to be a writer. In 2003 the Lord God and I made an agreement: I would walk through any door He opened. When a veteran writer offered out of the blue to pay my way to my first writers conference this past February, I did not hesitate to accept the opportunity to begin a writing career.

Through that experience I have come to realize that God opens doors in many ways. One way He does so is through His children, like the man who paid for my conference. But before this man made the decision to risk his money and his reputation on an unknown writer, he first had to see himself through the eyes of God as that door.

To be used of God to further His kingdom begins with recognizing that our lives and everything in it are not our own. All that we have, money, time, talents, personal possessions, belong to Him. We are merely stewards, managers of His benevolence. It is out of this relationship that we then craft our identities and discover our purpose for existing. When our identities are rooted in the purposes of God we no longer wake up and see ourselves as mother, father, sister, brother, student, wife, husband, etc., but as children of a divine God who is on a divine mission.

The measure with which we trust and embrace our identities in God determines the measure God uses us to carry out His plans. However, to fully understand this principle, one must come to terms with certain paradoxes contained in the Bible. Over and over Jesus taught that the first will be last and the last will be first (Matthew 19:30), and that anyone who desires to be first will be the servant of all (Mark 9:35). From these examples we can see why Jesus told his disciples, “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11 NIV).

The scripture is clear; the one who wants to be used of God as a door of opportunity to advance the purposes of His kingdom must first take the form of a humble servant. Philippians 2:3-11 tells us that to achieve this Jesus himself took the form of a servant by emptying Himself of all His rights and privileges. Nothing leaves a man feeling more vulnerable than to put aside his personal rights and privileges thereby removing all forms of self reliance and self sufficiency. To do so leaves us open to attack and makes us completely dependent on God.

And therein lay the keys to being used of God: vulnerable to the world, and dependent on God. In my 40 years of living around Christians, I have noticed that the men and women God uses the most to change people’s lives are not the movers and shakers of their respective denominations. The most effective Christians are not even the charming, charismatic mega-church pastors. I have discovered that the most effective Christians in the kingdom of God are common everyday men and women, boys and girls of all ages and all colors who simply open themselves up to the world and say, “Let me share with you what Jesus has done in my life.”

Effective Christians do not hide behind false bravado or shy away from the truth. Effective Christians are everyday people who expose themselves to the world and live transparent lives because they have a passion to see the lives of other people changed by the Lord Jesus, just as their own lives were once changed.

An effective Christian is the alcoholic who once beat his wife and kids, but then gave his life to Christ and now shares his story of redemption with other alcoholics. An effective Christian is the teenage girl who used to cut herself, but then found love and security in Jesus and the Church and now brings other cutters with her to her youth group. An effective Christian is the woman who was raped by her father as a child and now shares her story with other rape victims. An Effective Christian knows the living God as the God of all comfort and sees himself as the doorway through which others find healing and comfort. For this reason effective Christians live transparent and vulnerable lives.