"That's just who I am." In the face of criticism, opposition, or correction even Christians have clung to this personal right, this rigid existence, the war cry of idolatry. Some have gone far enough to declare, "That is how God made me." And since the Almighty is perfect, He must have created perfectly, and this quirk of self-righteousness can be in no way a fault?
These phrases do not only grate against my eardrums when the quirk pointed out is a sin. Sometimes we cling to the most benign of personality traits with a selfish rigor that becomes sin. Anyone played softball lately? When a brother lovingly points out that our aggression over a call at first may not be the battlefield on which to slay our integrity, out it comes: the venom of self-righteousness.
"God made me competitive."
Which may be true. But, He did not make you a jerk. That comes from a personal reservoir of our own ungodliness.
What on this earth is truly worth the corruption of our witness? What pieces of injustice, soon to be consumed in fire and forgotten, are worth the bruising of our character? What fleeting moment in time is worth all of a stranger's eternity? Maybe keeping our temper, sacrificing our wants, or dying to ourselves won't change the destination of a soul. We aren't promised that taking up our cross will get anyone saved.
But it might.
"For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. To the Jews I became a Jew, so that I might win the Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; to those who are without law, without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all people, so that I may by all means save some."1 Corinthians 9:19-22
Our personality, even the "good" parts of it, is not worth trading for our identity. You are not the competitive man. You are not the emotional woman. You are not the whip quick thinker. I am not the sum of my cowardice.
We are new creations in Christ. Made new once by His grace, and remade daily in the image of the Savior. There is nothing in me worth dying for. Except the Spirit of Christ proclaimed to the nations.
Where have you allowed you to become too rigid for Christ to move? What grace have you sacrificed for the sake of your personality? May we become all things for all people for the brief glimmer of a chance that maybe one soul might taste salvation and be satisfied. Let us not cling to our venom, but whisper honey and hope.
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