What Bald Spot?

Andra and I attended a great Super Sunday  Fellowship at our pastor's home on Sunday night and watched the Atlanta Falcons dominate the New England Patriots for three quarters and then we went home to see the New England Patriots have one of the greatest comebacks of sports history.  That comeback needed all the way into overtime for the Patriots to win, but THEY WON!!  Some were taking pictures of the group and one particular picture was taken from behind me when I was watching the game and it really opened my eyes.  (That's me in the red  hoodie on the couch.) When I saw the picture I thought, "Wow, that looks like me, but that guy has a bald spot on the crown of his head."  Upon looking closer I realized that guy "was me."  For years I had dealt with thinning hair near the front of my hair line, but felt pretty confident about the rest.  I HAD noticed that when brushing my hair back it seemed to quit at the crown of my head.  Now I know "it's because there is no hair there to brush back!"  BUMMER!! Had I not seen that picture of my hair from the back, I wouldn't have realized that I had a bald spot back there.  In fact, if someone had come up to me and said, "Do you know you have a bald spot on the crown of your head?"  I would have replied, "No I don't!"

Too many times in the sanctification process that God is working in our lives we "miss" the bald spots because they are seemingly out of sight to us.  Our attention is focused on the things we can easily see and change, but the out of sight things are even out of sight to us. Only when we see a picture of the reality of a missed blind spot can we deal with it in truth and forgiveness.  Psalm 25:4 says, "Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths." When we see God's ways He exposes the true picture to us about our ways and His picture is very revealing. In verse 5 the psalmist goes on to say, "Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long."  Sanctification - the state of proper functioning.  To sanctify someone or something is to set that person or thing apart for the use intended by its designer.  God is our designer.  The sanctification process for believers like you and me is intended to make good use of our lives for the use God intended for each of us.  In other words, God has a plan for your life and that plan is found in the  center of His will.  The sanctification process causes us to find God's ways and our desire to follow them takes on a whole new way of looking at life.  We see life as God sees it and begin to function as He intended.  One of the results of this sanctification process is a life that is bent toward holiness.  As we take on more and more of who God is in our life, the Holy Spirit begins to change us into a closer representation of who God is and that causes some major changes in our life direction and function.  Part of that process is God showing us the "bald spots" in our life that we, up to this point, didn't know existed.  He sees it and then shows it to us, if we are willing to believe what His awesome camera has captured, and then we can respond to the "truth" he has revealed to us about ourselves.  To which I will have to say, "I have many bald spots" and when He reveals them to me I try to respond with a willing, receptive mind and heart.  You may ask, "How long does this go on?"  All our lives!!  He gives us one lesson after another as He leads us to holiness.  Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:15  "But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all your behavior."

So sanctification matters.  Finding the bald spots in our lives matters.  Serving the Lord with an ever intensifying relationship matters!

Back to the game.  Before the game ever began, they were questioning how Tom Brady would respond to the pressure of the game and speculating whether he was "the best" of all time.  Commentators were analyzing every aspect of his game to come to a conclusion. For three quarters of the game they grilled him for not coming through like they thought He should and basically wrote him off.  Then came the fourth quarter.  The defense stiffened, the falcons lost their momentum, and Brady and Company took over.  Most people will say they knew that the Patriots would score in the overtime and win it after seeing the remarkable comeback in the fourth quarter.  Those of us who counted them out because of the daunting difference in the score had to eat our words and renew our faith by what we saw before us.  The whole Patriot game plan is a process that has been initiated by their great coach Bill Belichick.  When you join the team, you buy into the process and that process of all of those various, talented players working together makes a winner.  God's sanctification process is a winning process as well.  If you will bow your will to His will and we do that together, we will win every time and victory will be the song we sing together.  Part of joining that process is accepting the need to change the areas we can't see when He shows it to us.  BALD SPOTS!!  Let the ultimate Hair Club for Christians fill in those bald spots with His awesome formula and then you will see a full head of faith and Godliness that will never disappoint, but will impact the world we live in.  Get in His word and the visuals from spending time with God in prayer will begin to show you His ways, and the error your ways.  You may think you have lost your way, but there is one more quarter and victory is waiting for you if you persevere and open your heart.  People all around you will make you doubt, but trust God and He will rearrange and line everything up perfectly in your life.  A full head of sanctified hair is the end result.  Isn't that what you really want anyway?  YES IT IS!

The Pilgrimage continues....

David Warren