So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!  (2 Corinthians 5:17)

My dad helped me get jobs when I was a kid, like lots of parents do for their kids.  When I turned 13 I was old enough to pick grapes, apples, pears and plums at the farm owned by one of my dad’s friends.  That was an annual gig until I was in college.  I spent a summer sorting and bagging potatoes and onions at the Clinton Bailey market for another of my dad’s friends.  My dad’s friends were able to provide the sort of “character-building” jobs that my dad thought might do me some good.  Truthfully, my character needed more than hard work to improve it, but maybe it helped a little.

The last job my dad’s nepotism arranged was with a woman who had been a college classmate of his.  She owned an ice cream stand and I was her evening help.  She was truly a good person.  And she liked me.  But she was hard to please and short tempered and had a razor-sharp tongue.  Whenever she was in the store I felt like I was in a semi-permanent cringe, worried constantly that I was going to be the subject of her displeasure.  She didn’t attend our church, but she was churchy.  Her car had a bumper sticker that I’ve seen since on numerous occasions, but the first one I saw was hers.  It said: “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.”

True enough.  I can’t argue with that.  I understood the theology behind it even then.  Christians understand ourselves to be sinners saved by grace.  That’s how we get into the Christian club, by admitting our imperfection.  Being a Christian is not equivalent to being nice.  A Christian is someone who trusts God’s saving love revealed in Christ’s death and resurrection.

But still, that bumper sticker struck me as making an excuse in advance for not really trying to live like Jesus. 

People judge the validity of the Christian faith by the way we live our lives. All too often, our lives don’t provide a lot of evidence that following Jesus makes a person kind and compassionate, honest and faithful, generous and accepting.

Speaking for myself, forgiven or not, I need to do better.

Prayer:  Holy God, grant me grace to turn from all the attitudes and behaviors that would cause someone to doubt your saving love in Jesus.  Amen.