Hey! This blog's not funny!

This post is going to be a bit longer than the usual.

That means it might fall off into the land of boring.

Which is way less fun than the land of Dairy Queen...

See, I can only be funny for about sixty seconds worth of writing. 

And I need to waste way more than sixty seconds today because...

Well, because....

First, let me warn you dear readers the next picture is not for the faint of heart.

You see I need to write a long blog today because of this:

Its my laundry pile. 

Oh, the horror! Look away! Look away!

I must avoid it at all costs!

So a short and funny blog just doesn't help me to avoid it for long enough. 

Blame it on the laundry.

You can also blame it on Matt Chandler.

He is a pastor in Texas who recently did a sermon series on progressive sanctification.

You can hear the first sermon here: 

http://denton.thevillagechurch.net/resource_files/audio/200909130900HWC21ASAAA_MattChandler_ThePathPt01-TheAuthoritativeWord.mp3

So, I've been learning about the concept of progressive sanctification lately. 

Yikes!

Those are two really big words.

We can handle it though!

Progressive Sanctification = the process of becoming more like Jesus.

Its the process of growing spiritually mature.

How do we become spiritually mature?

Well, its not pretty and its usually painful.

At least it has been in the past and continues to be so for me.

I became a Christian when I was ten.

I renounced my life of folly, depravity and sin and proceeded to press on to the straight and narrow.

It wasn't much of a life of folly, depravity and sin.

I was ten for goodness sake.

But it was when I was 10 that I first realized that I wanted to believe in and be like Jesus.

Not just because my parents did or because I went to a Christian school but because I believed in Jesus and I believed that what God said in the Bible was true.

Lots of people have a story like that but that story is by no means their testimony. 

A testimony shouldn't end with when you first believed. 

It should involve your crooked path to progressively growing more like Jesus.

One of the ways that God makes us more like him is by using other people.

The first time I can really remember this happening is when I was eleven.

It was with Mr. Hinebook.

He was our music teacher.

One day after the bell rang to end music class he dismissed everyone else and came up to me and said that he could see I was troubled and wanted to know what it was.

He was right. I was troubled. 

See, a friend and I had agreed to be really mean to a girl on the playground that day. 

I can't remember the specifics - just the horrifying idiocy of little girls being little girls. 

I was feeling bad and nervous about it. 

I was so scared of what my friend would say if I told her I wasn't going to go through with our plan though. 

I confessed to him our little plan and instead of carrying me off to the principal or just shrugging it off as 'kids being kids.' He began to ask me probing questions about it.

"Do you believe in Jesus?"

"Yes"

"What do you think Jesus would think about this situation?"

"He probably wouldn't like it"

"Why don't you think he would like it?"

"Because its mean"

"It sure sounds that way to me"

And then he got out his Bible and sat me down with it and showed me where it says how we are supposed to treat people - especially people that others are being mean to. 

Another instance of it came when I was in the 7th grade. 

I had just transferred schools and was desperate to be liked.

One of the first days of school we were out on the track during gym class when the 8th grade boys ran by. 

Oh...the 8th grade boys...the whole class was full of cute boys and if they weren't traditionally cute they were really nice. 

In my mind when I think of these boys (who are all 34ish now) I still think of them as "the 8th grade boys"

Anyway...

My new friend was pointing out the boys to me:

"Thats Adam Smith. Isn't he gorgeous?"

Indeed, he was. 

But instead of saying that I tried to sound cool.

*****Which can I just say, even now, is a really, really bad idea, for me in particular*

I said:

"He kinda looks like a gelhead to me"

See, I said that because he had gel in his hair. 

Either way it was a moronic and mean thing to say.

A few hours later he shocked me by coming up to me and saying:

"I heard you called me a gelhead"

My first response was to lie.

"Um..no. No. I didn't say that."

I was stumbling all over myself because I wasn't used to people confronting me and...

...well he really was cute.

"Well, I think you did say it. I know you are new here so I just wanted to let you know that you can't do that here."

"Do what?"

"Call people names like that. I haven't done anything to you so you can't just call me a name like that. We don't do that here."

I mumbled okay. 

Actually, I hope I mumbled sorry. 

Lets go with that. 

Yeah! I definitely said I was sorry. 

Anyway, that was that. 

We had study hall together the whole year and became great friends. 

Here we are a year later:

Look friends!

As the years went by anytime I was tempted to say something off the cuff about someone's appearance 

I remembered him saying "you can't just do that."

The next time I can think of it was when I was 15. 

I had Mrs Prahba Sharma for geography class and oh the horror.

People were terrified of her. 

She demanded absolute excellence from everyone. 

You couldn't just sit in class - you had to sit up straight.

And not yawn.

And not chew gum.

And not fool around.

And not put your feet up.

And not put your head down.

And we were never allowed to say any other culture was 'weird'

She taught us to say they were 'different.'

I am so, so thankful for that class though. 

Mediocrity was not allowed. 

Here I am in all my 15 year old glory:

"Hey lady! Look sharp. Back to class. Don't just wander the halls!"

It really taught me to try to do my best and be respectful to teachers at all times.

The next time I can remember it - and the time it meant the most because it was so painful was when I was 18. 

It was in Mr. Thomas Bundenthal's Economics and Government class. 

We all liked Mr Bundenthal. He was young and made Government and Econ interesting.  

Well, as interesting as those two subjects can be.

Plus he introduced us to Hootie and the Blowfish.

"with a little time and some tenderness..."

Um, sorry for that. 

I still love Hootie.

Anyway, by this time I was in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. 

And in a student Bible Study. 

And wearing my Christian t-shirts. 

And going to Young Life. 

So I pretty much thought I spiritually had it all together. 

So one day in class the concept of man's sinfulness comes up. I have no idea why. 

I have tried and tried to remember why it came up but I just can't. 

Anyway he said something along the lines of "so Christians believe that people are born sinful"

This shocked me and I said "No we don't! We don't believe babies are sinful."

Then he quoted scripture at me. 

AT ME!

The vice president of FCA, and the Bible Study attender, and the Christian t-shirt wearer!

Then when I realized he was right I got super embarrassed and thankfully the subject dropped but when the bell rang he called me over. 

Those darn teachers. They are always calling you over after the bell rings.

So he called me over and in the nicest way possible said:

"Paula, I know you say you are a Christian and are pretty vocal about it. You are old enough now that if you are going to say you are a Christian than you better know what you believe and what the Bible says."

I had no idea if he was a believer but I did know he was totally right. 

I had no idea what all the Bible said.

I mean I read from a devotional book now and then and I had read parts of the Bible but I hadn't developed the spiritual discipline to read it every day or know any sort of theology.

So you take four people: Mr Hinebook, an 8th grade Adam Smith, Mrs Sharma, and Mr Bundenthal and you can see the way that the Lord used them to contribute to my personal progressive sanctification. 

The fact is if you are going to say you believe in Jesus you better start living like Him and allowing God to mold you into someone more like Him. Every. Single. Day. 

Its a process.

You gotta grow!

The fact is I could have told Mr Hinebook it was none of his business, I could have told Adam that I could say whatever I wanted to, I could have gone through the motions in Mrs Sharma's class and not taken it to heart and I could have been really mad at Mr Bundenthal for embarrassing me. 

Instead the Lord used those people to chip away at my many, many, many (have you seen the laundry pile at the top of the page) imperfections.

I pray that I would continue to allow people to point me towards the truth.