"I'm Not There Yet..."

Oftentimes in the Christian church, we hear this familiar saying. When you talk to people and they are sort of straddling the fence, they will utter this phrase to let you know their spiritual standing. We hear it a lot and I really never understood what it meant until last night. The phrase is "I'm not there yet" and is is used by many to explain where they are in their Christian walk. Honestly, it is really more of a rationalization as to why we cannot fully follow Christ and to explain away certain behaviors that are not befitting of the Christian.

In Luke 9, Jesus talked to three men with regards to following Him and two of the three gave an excuse for why they could not follow Him. In verses 57-62, Jesus laid out the cost of discipleship. Discipleship is all or nothing. Read it here:

57As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” 58And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” 59And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” 60But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.” 61Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.” 62But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Jesus said to the first man that wanted to follow him, I don't have anywhere to lay my head...just to let you know. What he was saying is this, if you follow me, do not expect an easy road and don't think that this will be a cakewalk. Notice, he ASKED the next one to follow Him and that one, probably after hearing that there was nowhere for the Son of Man to lay His head gave an excuse. He said, in so many words, "I'm not there yet..." Jesus's reply was simple, do not let anything stop you from following me...let the dead bury their own dead. The next one said, "I'll follow BUT, let me go tell my folks goodbye". Then, Jesus said that you should not look back after putting your hand to the plowshare- otherwise you are not fit for the kingdom of God. This would disqualify ALL believers because we have all looked back at some point. However, the tense of the verb "looking" is present/active which indicates that while you are plowing, you are actively looking back at the same time. You cannot plow a straight line with your head actively turned backwards looking at where you came from! How can you be fit for the kingdom of God if you are still concerned with the kingdom of the air?

That's why many give the excuse, "I'm not there yet...". Many of us are actively looking back at the old kingdom. We have parts of us that we do not want to let go of. Holding on to those things hinders us from moving forward in the kingdom of God. We have traits that we see as being definitive of us and we want to hold on to that old identity because if we let go of it, we are no longer who we used to be. THAT IS PRECISELY WHAT GOD WANTS US TO DO-- LET IT GO! That is the precise reason for being born again, so that our old nature can die and give way to our new nature created in Christ Jesus! So, the flesh will always tell us that we are not there yet to keep us in bondage and to stagnate our growth in Christ! As long as we hold on to the thought that we are not "there" we will never get "there". Paul said that we are to be crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20) in order that we may live by the Spirit of God!

"There" is a place that NONE of us are. We are striving to get "there" but we won't reach "there" i.e. perfection until Christ comes or until we die. Even the most devout Christians are not "there" because we will always struggle with something and we will remain "sinful" until the corruptible is replaced by the incorruptible. However, the difference between those that claim not to be "there" and those that understand that they will never get "there" while in this life is this- there is a concious effort by the latter to actually submit to the Spirit of God, to live according to the word of God and to be renewed in the spirit of their minds. The former are content to rationalize away sin by telling continually themselves, "I'm not there yet...".

I submit to you my brothers and sisters that we must remove that phrase from our Christian vocabulary and focus on the journey, never on the pitstops or the bumps in the road. The Christian walk is a marathon not a sprint and the race is not given to the swift or the strong but to the one that endures until the end. In order to get "there" we must first get on our way. That may involve several sacrifices along the way but the rewards are so much greater that the sacrifices pale in comparison to them! Let's all understand that while we are not "there" and will never get "there" in this lifetime, we should stay on the path to "there" and never use not being "there" to rationalize away our misdeeds and our fleshly desires. God bless you and hopefully, one day we will see each other..."there".