As a 12 year old desperate to make some extra money to buy more baseball cards, I agreed to help a couple of friends on a farm for two weeks. “Pulling pig weeds?” I responded when they told me my assignment for the first week. “What are pig weeds?” Over the longest fortnight of my young life, I became intimately acquainted with pig weeds and their ability to multiply at night, something like Tribbles from Star Trek. This 40-acre cotton field assigned to us to eradicate the pig weed population felt like a spacious prison whose only exit was completion of the task. No matter how many pig weeds I pulled, it seemed like there were 10 more sprouting up as I turned my back and headed for the next row.
When we are entrenched in ministry, discipleship takes on a similar feel: Just as feel like we get one issue solved in helping someone gain solid footing in their relationship with Christ, 10 more pop up out of nowhere. I often feel that way in my journey with Christ, excited about my one step forward before realizing I discovered two more issues for Him to heal in my life. My source of frustration usually emerges out of the fact that I don’t like things that are incomplete. An unfinished building, a car that stays up on blocks, a puzzle missing a few pieces, an ice cream sundae without whip cream—they all needle the part of me that wants to see something completed, something finished.
While many contemporary versions of the Bible use different wording, the New King James’ way of putting Hebrews 12:2 speaks volumes to me, urging me to quiet my nagging feeling of irritability for the incomplete. “… Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith …”
Jesus is the one who finishes my faith, not me. How refreshing to know I can lay down that burden! Of course, there is the fine line of laying down the burden to make room for God to work and then giving up altogether. But this is good news, especially to everyone in ministry who struggles with why no one they minister to seems to “get it.”
One of my guilty pleasures with television is watching reality shows. This summer, I enjoyed Big Brother 8, but I got so frustrated with the two women on the program who prayed and talked about the Bible one minute and then cursed at a housemate the next. It was maddening. However, what really pained me was when the household instigator looked at them and said, “Would Jesus say that?” Or “I guess God doesn’t like you because He didn’t help you today!”
I started wishing I could borrow the “Big Brother” house microphone and say, “The reason he keeps making fun of your faith is because you keep showing major inconsistencies with how you walk it out.” Then I stopped and thought I would probably look just as inconsistent as them when watched moment by moment. And it’s not really their fault that the household instigator continued to antagonize them (OK, they could be nicer and user cleaner language)—it was the result of flawed thinking that once we give our hearts to Jesus that we’re suddenly finished. Pop culture is not to blame for this thinking—Christians are!
As we share the Gospel with others, we must explain what the Bible says about Jesus being the finisher of our faith, not us. Most people in our culture—Christians included—think that we have to be perfect now that we’ve decided to follow Jesus. But that’s far from the truth. Jesus is the one doing the perfecting and finishing in us … and it’s not going to be completed until we see Him face to face. (1 Corinthians 13) We’re still responsible for our actions here and now, but the burden of trying to “be” perfect can be lifted off our shoulders.
In ministry, we can set that burden down and joyfully encourage others in their relationship with Jesus, knowing that we can truly have patience to minister if we realize we’re not going to see the completion of what we set out to accomplish with God in this lifetime. We should all be moving toward a life that more and more reflects Jesus, but we don’t—and can’t—get there in a day. There’s freedom that comes with not only knowing that truth but also walking it out on a daily basis.
