Patches of Righteousness

When I was in high school, I had a pair of jeans that I really loved. They were well worn, and really comfortable. After a while, I got a hole in one of the knees. I loved how comfortable these jeans were, and I didn’t have money to buy new jeans, so I just put a patch over the hole. Over time, I got more rips and more patches. When the jeans finally ripped between two patches, I relented and threw them out. And yes, at the end the jeans looked as ridiculous as you are imagining with several different patches that didn’t match each other or the original pair of jeans.

I have realized that many of us take a similar approach with righteousness. We know that we have some problem areas in our lives, and we ask God to help us “patch” those areas. After all, we are pretty good people, and we are very comfortable with our lives. We just have a few areas that need some work.

However, Jesus didn’t come to patch up our old life; he came to give us a whole new life. "No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise he will both tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old” (Luke 5:36). “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The problem with our old way of life is not confined to a few areas; it is a systemic problem. That is why Jesus offers us a whole new life, a brand new garment. Let us embrace the new life that Jesus offers to us and leave our old lives in the trash where they belong.

The Family Stone

A few weeks ago I watched The Family Stone for the first time. It's a really great movie that I would recommend to anyone. The recommendations I had received were so great that I bought it without even seeing it. There were many things in that movie that stood out to me, but there was one line towards the beginning that really jumped out at me. The parents are talking about Meredith, the girlfriend their son Everett has brought home for Christmas. The dad makes the assessment: "She doesn't seem to know herself very well. Which means, I'm afraid, our Everett doesn't know himself very much either." It made me pause the movie and rewind to catch it again. It is something I had never thought about before, but really is true. When we don't know ourselves and are very insecure with who we are, we tend to seek out those same types of people. Otherwise we may have to face the reality that is ourselves, and that is something we are trying to avoid. I definitely saw this in my first marriage as I did not know myself at all. That's one of the inherent dangers of marrying young.

The families' problem with Meredith was not in who she was, it was that she didn't know herself and was very fake. As Ben (one of Everett's brothers) put it, "You have a freak flag; you just refuse to fly it." I love that line! We all have freak flags, aspects of who we are that are unique and strange. Rather than trying to hide them, we need to accept and embrace them as a part of who we are. This doesn't mean we don't grow and change certain aspects. But before any of that can happen, we must acknowledge and accept those things as a part of who we are.