In His Likeness w/ AntTBri

An excuse is an excuse is an excuse although we often try to pass it off as a justifiable explanation, a permissible reason, and an acceptable apology of why or why not we do or don’t do a thing. Most times it is an emotionally dressed up pretext, plea, or pardon for who we are but don’t want to admit to being. It is our security blanket… like Linus van Pelt (the character from Charles M. Shultz’s comic strip Peanuts); we carry it around with us everywhere we go expecting others to ignore or pretend not to notice or be bothered it.  Our blue blanket emotionally covers, comforts, and calms us but it physically and psychologically contest, challenge, and confront others when they try to hold us accountable to our words and actions. Excuses are used as a repellent, deterrent, offense or defense strategy depending upon the desired outcome or particular objective. Think about it depending on the position, perception, and even purpose of saying or doing a thing a person can respond favorably or frantically. Let them like Lucy, the grandmother or Snoopy try to snatch, steal, or sneakily take away our blanket of security and they will encounter earnest arguments, emotional attachments, and explicit anger not usually attributed to the successful, studious, sophistication of saints. How easily defused are our philosophical and theological assertions in such moments.  What a mockery to our said faith and attempt to live and love in God’s likeness.  Maybe Christian husbands have spiritual contentious wives because of the excuses they use to cover their apathy in living and loving.  Maybe Christian wives have spiritual controlling husbands because of the excuses they use to hide the fact that they are afraid while living and loving. Maybe Christian families produce rebellious, wayward, and spiritually lost children because of the contradiction that exists within our homes as we live and love.  Maybe the cycle is perpetual because these children later become unaccountable Christians (to God (WORD), themselves, and others) that profess salvation but use the excuse of be….ing (continual process) sanctified to cover the lack of spiritual discipleship and discipline needed to live in love in God’s likeness successfully.  Definitely it is the fact that we don’t hold ourselves accountable to the Word we talk, teach, and tote.

We all have a story… saved, sanctified, and Spirit filled undergoing this process called life.  Sometimes we win terrifically at it and other times we lose terribly at it…thank God for His grace and mercy…because without it there would be no Hope or Good News to admonish us to robe ourselves in righteousness. To do so (win that is) we have to do our part (work with God to allow the Holy Spirit to bring about the desired fruit/result of His Word…when we don’t do the work it shows (manifest) and although we ask, assert, and even accept Excuse Me as a justifiable security blanket we are not covered.  Salvation is a beautiful experience…the transformation is a life changing process that occurs spiritually then manifest naturally. It begins with our acceptance of Jesus Christ as our personal Savior…when we accept, acknowledge, and articulate that He was crucified, buried, and rose again for our sins we are changed, created a new. The moment we agree that God’s way of life and love is Right and the way we’ve been living and loving (without Him) is wrong we cancel out, render null and void the excuse of human depravity because we are spiritually acclimated into the body of Christ and we become one with the Father. The work of salvation is done, complete in and of Jesus alone however we must then begin to live and love LIKE him. The fact that we fail to manifest Christ attributes, attitudes, and abilities is the security blanket we use to cover our choice not to become or be what He says we can be. This mares the manner in which we live and love and contradicts our said faith confusing self effort or the lack there of with the security salvation affords.

What is not always clearly communicated or understood is the effort, energy, and equipping of the mind that has to take place to bring our hearts into total agreement and alignment to the will of God. We work in conjunction with the Holy Spirit to bring about the reality of Jesus sacrifice in our lives…thus the internal conflict, the tug of war, struggle, and desire to escape and be excused from conforming to the will and way God will have us live and love him, ourselves and others.  Contrary to popular thought Jesus does not do everything for us…Jesus has done his part…he is awaiting our doing.  We put on, take off, shun, resist, and contend for the faith…it happens as a result of our acceptance, agreement, and acclimation to the working of the Spirit in us…working through us! We cannot use grace as an excuse to stay complacent in our sin, to never commit fully to the things and way of God for our living and loving. At the crux of every excuse we contrive is an internal war between our soul and spirit that can only be conquered by the truth of God’s Word reigning supreme in our lives. We have no problem memorizing, quoting, praying, and even agreeing that the Word is true but we in many cases fail to appropriate its application in terms of our living and loving. We like Eve and Adam find away to excuse the actual application away to accommodate what we want to do to gratify our flesh in the moment of testing and temptation. Sadly to say, many a saints forfeit the freedom of relationship with God for the falsehood of what’s felt, experienced, and allotted them (human attention, inquiry, and sympathy or understanding) when they hold on to or carry the blanket of what happened to me, what didn’t happen for me before salvation. As if salvation ranks second to real life occurrences and the natural supersedes the spiritual.  If so that would mean we live and love at a disadvantage and the complete finished work of Jesus Christ is null and void… well except for a certain few (Bishops, pastors, and leaders) …the rest of us can deflect responsibility and hobo off the effort, experience, and education of the ones that do the work of relationship with Jesus.  It occurred to me that we often celebrate being pardoned from our sins without ever comprehending fully all the blood cancelled out and erased…the penalty of death, eternal separation from God and any excuse we could use to cover the fact we choose death.  With the shedding of blood came the washing and wiping away of all excuses of why we can or cannot be or do what God desires. With the blood comes a guarantee…a stamp of approval…the branding of New. Jesus like the character’s of the Peanuts comic (Lucy, Linus’s grandmother, and Snoopy) desires to rid us of our security blanket through the workings of the Holy Spirit. If you allow Him to bring about the results of the Word in your living and loving…the Word will divide asunder the soul (mind/emotions) and spirit which is so intricately connected that it cannot be accomplished through human effort. It must be surrendered and submitted fully otherwise we will forever be saying Excuse Me.

Do we use our “spirituality” as an excuse from blame or criticism for a mistake or wrong doing? After all, we are only human and everyone makes mistakes and falls short of the glory (right)? Does this take into account those things we intentionally choose to do antithetical God because we don’t feel like it or can’t resist the feeling today? Do we expect people to overlook something to make allowances for somebody or something? Surely we can relate to weakness, pressure, feelings of inadequacy, and failed attempts to feel better and find some type of solace in a person, a bottle, a drug…shopping, over eating, and gambling.  Do we desire to be released from obligation or responsibility?  Many of us just can’t take it anymore… we don’t want to be a parent, a spouse, a boss, a leader…we just want to do us free and clear of expectations.  Maybe we’re simply justifying something… attempting to provide a reason or explanation for our behavior to make it appear more acceptable or less offensive.  Possibly we’re providing an out and granting ourselves and others a polite means to exit apologetically.

Usually the justification, false reason, bad example, note used to attract attention politely, and apology used for doing something rude or embarrassing indicates politely that we disagree or think something is incorrect or needs repeating because we did not hear or understand its application outside of the comfortable allowance we grant ourselves in such instances. So we say excuse me for the offense, excuse me that I was rude, that I embarrassed myself and you. Pardon me for the wrong I’ve done or said; for the position I put you in. Excuse me from my responsibilities…let me be an absentee parent as long as I put the check in the mail…let me flaunt the title as long as I show up and look the part. Pardon me for stepping over you or on you. Excuse me for over talking or talking down to you. Pardon me for being late, for not showing up, for letting you down.  Excuse my selfishness, thoughtlessness, and insensitivity to what you feel and need from me. Pardon me for not taking into consideration how you’ll affected by what I say and do. Excuse me excuse me excuse me… God’s still working on me…despite my lack of effort…He understands and knows my heart…especially the fact that it is far from Him. I’ve prayed about this habit and when He’s ready for me to stop He’ll take it away…pray my strength, my deliverance, and blessings in the Lord because Linus’s security blanket is actually the modern-day fig leaves Adam and Eve used in Eden to excuse and cover the cowardice of their choice to live and love outside of the boundaries set forth by God.  We say excuse me to man for a many reasons…I wonder if those reasons weigh in with our lasting, living, and loving relationship with God. Maybe God’s hope, mandate, and challenge to us today is the same as it was back then…accept, agree, and acknowledge that I’ve provided everything you need to live and love successfully. We didn’t need to cover up then and now that Jesus came we don’t need the security blanket of excuse…Let it go, put it down, and allow the Holy Spirit his perfect work in you…No more excuses and no need to continue asking …Excuse Me.