1% God
“Be holy for I am holy” was what I was thinking about on my way back home after an awesome weekend playing with the worship team at a youth camp.
I pray that I would be more like Jesus, but really, how much like Jesus can I be? Or how much like Jesus do I want to be?
While there might be many views, guesses, thoughts on this subject and without discounting any, this is something I am chewing on.
If I were to, just for the sake of some measure, to measure the extent of Jesus’ love on a scale of 1% - 100%, it would be 100%.
If I were to be holy, say for the sake of measurement, 20% that would make our Saviour, God of all Glory only 80% holier than I.
If I were to be compassionate, say for the sake of measurement, 20% that would make our Saviour, God of all Glory only 80% more compassionate than I.
So it goes on.
So what does God mean “Be holy, for I am holy”. I think that when he said “For I am holy” he meant the 100% version of holiness. The only holiness He knows.
So, is this holiness, among other characteristics; compassion, love… attainable?
I think not. If I were to think that I can attain a holiness, with the help of the Holy Spirit, or any other characteristic, even above 1%, I either do not comprehend the measure of God or I am in severely undermining Him with thinking that I can be anything more than a sinful human. Struggling to even be 1% holy or 1% compassionate.
Our holiest of saints are sinful flesh before God.
Can I even be 1% compassionate as Mother Theresa was? Maybe. How about 50%, or 80%? Not that that is a target, but it puts things into perspective. Can I pray to be “just like” Jesus? Is that prayer of mine foolish? Does it seriously undermine Jesus to think that my flesh can be “just like” him? An innocent prayer with good intentions.
My prayer for a while has been to just be 1% like Jesus, to understand just 1% of His love. Our perception of 1% is small, but even 1% God is beyond my comprehension.
While this is not the end all explanation, it is something that I’ve been chewing upon and will continue to wrestle with.