The Distance Between

Social sin, brokenness, giving offense, whatever it's called is sometimes an act of will.  That is, sometimes people set out to deliberately wound someone else with their words.  For most of us most of the time though, such things start as an unintentional offense born of our own struggles and issues.  As a simple example, how many of us know someone that makes rude, self-aggrandizing or inappropriate remarks in a social setting?  And, how many of us can look in the mirror and see a person sometimes like that?   I can.

Except in extreme cases, this usually comes from a problem in the way we see ourselves versus the way we actually are.  That may sound strange but it's actually quite common throughout history, literature and the bible. 

It was so common an idea in the ancient world that the Greeks had a word for it.  That is, hubris.  The idea of hubris lives on today in a somewhat confusing modern word, pride.  Pride is fine when it lines up with the way things are; that is, with the way we were made to be.  Hubris though is a kind of pride in which you see yourself as a bigger deal than you really are.  This is always a problem.

There's a conceptual problem of more recent vintage that has the opposite polarity.  Namely, that we view ourselves and sometimes act in a way that communicates that we are less than we really are. We might call this insecurity, poor self image or any number of psycho-jargon phrases.  When not taken to extremes, this type of self deprecation has a good side too.  We call the good side of this issue, modesty. 

These two extremes have one thing in common.  That is, they both mark a distance between the reality of who we are versus an inaccurate self-perception of how we see ourselves.  When we think, believe or act out of that misconception, we really can't help but "miss the mark."  Put another way, how can you hit the target if all your points of reference are wrong?

The good news is that sometimes by sudden miracle, sometimes over time and experience, even painful experience relationship with Christ closes the distance between who we think we are and who we were actually made to be.  Over time with Christ and in concert with his body, we gradually stop making up ideas of how we need to act and be and instead realize both the wonderful substance and beautiful broken need of who we were spoken to be.

As we are gradually moved toward completion, our vision of the process and the goal becomes clearer.  As Christ brings us closer to himself, we become more of who we were always intended to be.