Coveting Conviction

By Dan Carpenter on 12/11/11

The best thing about being Christian is conviction. Wait! Let me be clear -  I don’t mean knowing I’m right, I mean learning that I’m wrong. THAT conviction.

In our culture we tend to compete endlessly to be the most right. Even in church. Sometimes, it seems, especially in church. That’s the cliche, right? A bunch of self-righteous perfectionists? But that isn’t the message. Forget the cliche. Christ didn’t die in perfection so we could sit around pondering how wonderful we are. He died in perfection so we could realize how wrong we are. And to be set free by it. To evolve towards the ideal He’d have for us. Which brings me to today’s message - it was convicting. Today I saw, yet again, that I was wrong about something - and It was wonderful.

Why?

Because being wrong is the only way to become right. Ponder that. The only way. Period. God’s greatest gift to us - this is the secret sauce in Christ’s message: we have permission to be wrong. So long as we recognize it, own it, and change. Repent. Grow. Evolve.

That’s what makes a Christian. A person who can be wrong.

In Mathew 6:33 Christ calls us to “Seek ye first the kingdom,” a clear definition of what our priorities are to be. So as a Christian and as a man I have a list - its a list of areas where I’m working. Hard. Weaknesses & blind spots. Being covetous wasn’t on that list. I thought this was an area of strength. I was wrong. Turns out I covet all sorts of things. I covet esteem. I covet voice. I covet praise. I covet courage. I covet restraint. I can even covet faith - shoot, I can covet conviction itself.

Exodus 20:17 starts, “Thou shalt not covet…” and it’s that simple.

And while I cannot know the mind of God I see a relationship here - between Christ’s message, our mission, and this commandment. I think it’s supposed to help us stay safe, to stay in our lane… because no matter how far we walk towards God, the edge of sin will always be right there. To walk in faith we have to (again and again) want things we don’t have. We have to want to be more honest. More giving. More loving. More faithful. More courageous. More. Always we will be chasing more. And more. And more - perfection ever out of reach. So we have a commandment to help us from turning our desire to serve into sin.

To covet is a sin that walks hand in hand with human achievement -  a temptation just this side of where we’re supposed to be. As such it will stalk us, you and I, through every step of our journey of faith, tempting us from the path.  We walk a high wire act, you and I: with purity in one hand and passion in the other, walking the footsteps of the perfect man. Learning one mistake at a time to dive deeper into our character, to refine ourselves in His image, we will find on occasion that we’ve been wrong - that we are covetous, that we’ve allowed sin.

That’s a given - we’re human and theres no way around it. We sin.

So it really comes down to what we do when we realize it. When were convicted. Because conviction will come whether we want it or not - the spirit brings it.

John 16:8 says, “When he [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world.”  Not a threat, it’s a promise. God doesn’t just command us - he helps us.

To my mind that moment of conviction, above all others, is what defines us as Christians. That’s when we choose who we want to be. When we choose if we’ll call ourselves Christian or if we truly are Christians. Sight unseen, this is a moment we all face again and again between ourselves and God alone.

Myself? I’m convicted. Guilty. And I love it. I don’t wallow in it but I know I’m wrong and I’m blessed for it. Owning it, God sets me free. I’ve failed again, and I’m thus one step closer to the God who I love. And next time, with His help, I’ll be just a bit more aware and I’ll watch for it - and I’ll learn something new instead, growing in character and in faith. Inching closer to who I’m called to be. One mistake, one choice, at a time. Which is why I love a message, and a Christian, like Di evidenced today - she didn’t ask us to follow her perfection. No. She asked us to learn form her mistakes and invited us to emulate her in growth - following the footsteps of the one man who never did chose wrong. That is a Christian.

Who knew we could be so lucky to be so wrong?

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