Hypocrisy

I have been reading a book called unChristian.  The point of this book is that many "Christians" and churches have become UNChristian.  Currently I am in the chapter on hypocrisy and came across this quote:

"Attack me, I do this myself, but attack me rather than the path I follow and which I point out to anyone who asks me where I think it lies.  If I know the way home and am walking along it drunkenly, is it any less the right way because I am staggering from side to side!"  --Leo Tolstoy in a personal letter (p. 66, from an excerpt originally by Jim White)

This is the hard part I find in being a Christian.  I want to show people that aren't Christian  that following Jesus really does make a difference.  I want to show people that Jesus has changed my life, and have found that I feel guilty when my life does not yet match up with the example Christ set.  It seems my goal has become to show everyone else that I am different, rather than allowing Christ to make that difference in me.  So instead of being honest I have become a hypocrite.  Its like I view Christ as some kind of lipstick that I am slavering on a pig (me) and hoping that the world will call it beautiful and do the same!!!

How often have we done this?  We want to put the best face on Jesus (as if we could!) so that people will come to think he really works!  Well, if God really works (and I have experienced that he does) then perhaps we can trust that the Almighty has the power to remain attractive and powerful, even when we don't quite cut it.

What do you think?  Can Christ still have power in my low moments?  When I swear, lust, steal, lie, and otherwise stumble on my way home--can Jesus still work miracles and call a fallen world to him?  Does he have the power to overcome even my own false image?

Perhaps he does.

So what would that mean for me?  Does that mean I shouldn't care how I act?  By no means.  But what it looks like is me seeking to follow Christ and become like him for his sake--not whether or not people will reject him because of me.  It means I can stop looking over my shoulder, wondering what those around me think of me and focus solely upon Jesus.  It means I can be authentic when I stumble, because perhaps, just perhaps, there is someone else struggling too.

I think that in the end it is not about individual actions that we participate in.  In the end its about whether we let those individual actions define who we are.  In the end its about whether I continue to pursue Jesus despite (maybe even because) I stumble.  In the end it is less about whether or not I can suck in my stomach long enough so that no one can see my gut than it is about they journey that God is leading me on!  Oh!  And also not holding others to a standard of action that I can't follow myself, and instead just loving them like Jesus did.