Life’s First Buttonhole
My daughter struggled to button her new shirt. She had missed the first buttonhole and her 6-year-old fingers fumbled with the remaining buttons. The result was a lopsided mess. Tears and frustration reddened her face. I knelt in front of her to share a little secret: If you can line up the first button on the top, all the rest will fall into the right place automatically….
The sting of the news hit like a sucker punch.
He was a good preacher. My kids would skip children’s ministry to sit in the service because of his engaging messages. They can still remember the three points of his Christmas message two years ago.
How shocking and devastating to find out he had plummeted from grace.
And he wasn’t the only one. Over the last few years, news of some of my favorite Bible teachers or respected Christian leaders have made the headlines for their shady and ungodly living. They demonstrate a great level of competence, but expert ability wasn’t enough to fill in the “cracks” in their character.
“Are you good at what you do?” It’s not often asked of us but is probably a question in the minds of others . . . the age-old question of competence, the ability to perform with excellence.
This generation is 1.5 trillion dollars in debt to student loans. All in pursuit of an excellent education. We must be good at what we do.
Another study shows the average American will spend more money on health and fitness over their lifetime than their college education. We must look good.
This past year has forced us into isolation and a constant influx of information through the internet. It screams at us to pick sides. Moralism is preached. We must be good.
These pursuits are not evil in themselves. In fact, we should invest in our education, health and moral responsibility . . . but not at the price of character.
Over our lifetimes we are presented with millions of experiences where we have to make choices. Character is developed from how we respond to those experiences. The habits formed from those thought patterns will forge our souls.
Who are you when no one is watching? What have you become?
If you have detected a character flaw, our world and its system will tell us to try harder! “DO better! Fix yourself!”
So often I would force myself into a self-improvement plan only to fail a few days later. It’s one thing to correct an eating habit; it’s an entirely different thing to correct one’s character.
The Bible tell us in Romans chapter three that we are hopeless if left to ourselves. Our hearts are like a throne room. We were created to worship.
Whatever sits in the highest eminence of our lives is what we worship. Is it wealth or prestige? Our own self-image? The Bible defines this as idolatry.
And the problem with idol worship is that idols are never satisfied. You will never be educated enough . . . smart enough . . . wealthy enough . . . healthy enough . . . good enough . . . .
You will live your life serving something unworthy of your worship. Substituting love for anything more than God will also lead to terrible consequences because we will sacrifice our time, marriage, children, et cetera, all at the altar of this idol.
We need a supernatural, external force to correct this internal problem. God in His great wisdom knew there was only room for One worthy recipient to sit upon the throne of our hearts.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17).
Whether this is the first or one thousandth time you have heard this truth, each time it is still just as freeing.
You see . . . this is the first buttonhole of life. When we get this first truth right, the other essentials automatically line up. Jesus is the source of redemption for all mankind. The Lord alone deserves to be enthroned in our lives.
The gospel changes everything. HE is good and His goodness transforms us from the inside out. The Book of Romans reminds us that when Jesus sits on the throne of our heart, His spirit does the work of metamorphosing work in our soul.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:1-6).
Character and competence become secondary to the gospel because its good news has the power to transform our character cracks and competence flaws.
So take a moment to ask yourself:
Am I yielding to the One worthy of my obedience?
How am I seeing His transforming work in my character?
Is my life’s “first buttonhole” properly aligned?
Written by Kori, LIFE Staff