"That's going on your permanent...

record." Whenever we hear those words directed at ourselves or someone else, usually it is in the negative sense. Whatever the event, action, behavior or lack thereof we all have parts of our lives that we wish could simply be erased from existence. I don't have time to chronicle all of my bad decisions or mistakes that I have made, am making and will make, but rest assured I have made my share or more of these foolish choices in my life. Some of you will need less convincing than others. :-)

One of the greatest things about the message of Jesus Christ is the opportunity to let us not just start over with a clean slate, but that God focuses on only our positives through His grace and mercy and the path to forgiveness that He has blessed us with in the sacrifice of His own Son, Jesus Christ on the cross. Negative has a way of completely overpowering any positives a person may have in their lives. With all the media attention atrocious acts are given, any one of those acts could be used against that person to not only outweigh any good that person has done, but easily erase from anyone's memory any positive attributes the person may still possess. Notice how society wants to erase any good accomplished by a person, corporation or country and how successful society is to that end. When people start talking about legacies and the like, many successful and even historic figures are cut down to nothingness with just the accusation of negative, not to mention those who are totally destroyed by the truth of a particularly dreadful, as society judges it, character flaw.

I think the Kingdom of God came to turn the tables not only on the hierarchy of society, (Mark 10.43, "...whoever want to become great among you must be your servant.") but also in even how we present ourselves to others. Most of us are familiar with "putting our best foot forward." This strategy is the worldly way. We do this when meeting new people, interviewing for jobs, dating etc. Is my "best foot" really just a lie or will I actually become the person I want those who I am trying to impress to believe that I am? In 2 Cor. 11.30 and 12.5-6, God through Paul shows us the example of how the Kingdom of God turns us upside down when it comes even to presenting our strengths and weaknesses.

Will I have or can I develop the discipline and the wisdom to actually boast about my weaknesses as Paul does? If I don't or if I am not, then I need to. God reveals the truth behind this strategy in 2 Cor. 12.9, when He told Paul that His power is made perfect in weakness. Because of this Paul determines to all the more gladly boast of his weaknesses. Shouldn't that be my attitude as well? Adopting that attitude will not only take lots of courage, wisdom and discipline, but I think it may be one of the greatest leaps of faith a person will ever take.