When my mom used to make cookies, my brother, sister and I often helped by putting icing and sprinkles on them. Along the way, one of us would always end up challenging the others to pour a bunch of sprinkles into their mouth and eat them straight up.
Have you ever tried a mouth full of cookie sprinkles? They are terrible! They have no real taste or consistency. They look nice, but without the cookie, they are not worth eating.
Over the years, I have come to believe that many people see church as being the sprinkles on their cookie.
In other words, we like to think that we are basically good people who just need to clean up a few bad habits and we will be fine! Church, then, becomes the place to find some sprinkles of goodness so that your normal life looks just a little better.
However, God has a different goal for us. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:1-2).
Church is not about trying harder and being nicer. You can find nice people doing nice things all over the place. Faith is not about making your old life look a little prettier. What God is looking for is a complete transformation, or a metamorphosis, like when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly.
We need a different scorecard. We need a different way to measure success and what is worthwhile. If we keep comparing and competing with one another as we have always done, nothing will ever really change or get better.
Do not settle for being a better version of your old self. God, by his Spirit and his power, is offering the chance to start over and live a new life both now and in eternity.
You can try to make your current life look better, or you can start over in a new and better way.
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
