A Stumbling Saint....

Day by Day...

There is a young man who I have had the pleasure to get to know. Let's call him Drake (no not thing crazy dancing rapper). I remember the first time I saw Drake. To give context, I work with what is called "hard to place" young men and women. Drake was not one of those types by the look at him. He was tall, on the thinner side, and some would say he looked like a certain celebrity...

I walk up to Drake and I introduce myself, and of course he says his name and shakes my hand. In my brief interaction I was curious why he ended up at my work. It honestly only took a few days before I started understanding why Drake had ended up at this placement.

Drake was a foul-mouth, bad attitude, gangster (his words not mine) man. Most of his conversations were about guns, women, and selling drugs. His first few weeks, to be honest, I thought this kid would not make it at our placement. He literally did everything wrong. Then his attitude and I quote would be " I don't give a f*** this place is a**".

White-Washed Tombs

Jesus once said this to the pharisees:"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness" (Mt.23:27-28)

I read a commentary to kind of understand this idea a bit better. It expressed, in this time, that people made tombs white because if a Jew were to step on the tomb they would be considered unclean. The idea is this: the graves would look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside it was nothing but decay and death.

What Jesus is essentially saying to these Pharisees, these leaders of the law, or what might be considered Pastors or heads of the church. You appear being right before all, but on your inside you are filled with death and decay. This is a state in which I call a heart condition.

Drake is a Stumbling Saint

I had successfully avoided ever having to really deal with Drake. To be completely honest, I just didn't want to deal with the trouble that I thought he'd be. Then one day, I came into work and to my surprise he had been put as my help for deliveries. I remember trying to find ways to convince my boss to put someone else with me. Obviously in the end, God had other plans. 

At first, I felt the day would be awkward. The funny thing was Drake made me feel comfortable. Sure he was cussing up a storm but he was very open. We spoke of many things on our travels through the day. I learned a lot about him and his past. I learned a lot about his future goals as well. At that moment, I realized that I was a whitewashed tomb. I had a heart condition. I judge this young man before even hearing his heart. I was seeing myself as righteous and seeing him as a problem.

I love the line in the song posted above "Day by Day" where it states, "I am not who I was, now I am who I am. A sinner saved, a stumbling saint." I am a stumbling saint. As seen above, I judge others, I complained, I fought loving the seeming unlovable. Drake's a stumbling saint as well. He curses and he fights. Yet we are both beloved sons of Christ. 

IN CONCLUSION

We can live one of two ways. We can live as if we are awesome on the outside and dead on the inside, or live with God's grace. Our heart is 100 percent dependent on our understanding of Christ. When we understand that we are stumbling saints. We truly are able to not be white washed but to allow Jesus blood to cleanse us. It will heal us from our broken souls. Not only that but our eyes will see other stumbling saints. Drake will always be a huge part of my life. He has impacted me in a way I can thank him enough for but I will remember the lesson he taught me. We are prone to wander and forget our God. Yet, He will retrieve us in the best ways possible. Day by day we will go through all of life's trials. Yet, God walks alongside us, never allowing us to be alone.