Are You Consistent?
~Luke 16:10
We donate clothes to Goodwill often. Several times a year. And both my daughters and my wife like to shop at the Goodwill thrift store. I went with them once, and while I was there, I found a nice men's button up shirt I liked. I bought it for like $6. We get home and we're comparing treasures, and I show my wife the shirt I bought. "That's your shirt!" Valerie said. "You donated that in the last batch we took in."
I'd bought my own shirt back. But I got a great deal! The first time I bought it, it was like $30!
A couple weeks ago, Valerie was scanning photos from an old album, and she found some of us back when we first started dating, nearly 30 years ago. I was a lot thinner then, and wearing button fly 501 jeans and a plaid shirt over a t-shirt. Valerie was laughing, because I was wearing almost the exact same outfit looking at that old photo that I was wearing in that old photo.
Consistency is a good thing, I think. Especially in matters of faith.
Too often we give ourselves little "carve outs" in our faith. We tell ourselves we need to be able to fit in at work, so we use some language that maybe we wouldn't use in church. Or we fudge a little on our tax return. Or maybe we change the facts a little bit when there's a problem at work so we don't look like we messed up as badly as we did.
But we're either honest, or we're not. We're either faithful, or we're not. How can we consider ourselves to be obedient when we are inconsistent in the application of our faith?
As it says in Luke chapter 16, the size of our transgressions aren't important if they exist at all. A small sin is no less a sin than a big one. A small lie is no less harmful than a whopper. It's being constant and steady and consistent in our faith that matters. Living our faith in each and every moment.
I wish I could say my choices as they pertain to matters of faith were as automatic and as predictable as my choices in attire have always been. That's the goal.
~Pastor Todd Creason
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