Today I was reading the book of Acts, and I found myself chuckling at a disagreement that the believers had with Simon Peter. He had been given a vision three times of a white sheet with "unclean foods" coming out of heaven, and the Spirit telling him to kill and eat. Later, when some men sent from a centurion in another town ask him to come and speak, Peter says that God has shown him, despite a law that forbids Jews from fraternizing with foreigners, he must not call any person common or unclean. Peter goes to the centurion's house and preaches the gospel to his whole family, and they all accept Jesus' message and the Holy Spirit comes and baptizes them. Amazing, right? Well, when Peter returns, a group in Jerusalem that is what I will call "pro-circumcision" chastised him for visiting and eating with uncircumcised men. Isn't that ridiculous?
I guess the reason that I found this so funny was the fact that I had always thought of the Acts believers to be super amazing and perfect believers...but this little anecdote about the argument they had with Peter disproves that. The amazing thing, however, is that even though they weren't perfect, they were the people that God chose to deliver his gospel to the world.
Later, I felt the Lord whisper to me that the same principle applies to me. My life is not a perfect reflection of Jesus' love, or a perfect Christian walk. Even though stupid disagreements and decisions I have had have hurt relationships, He does not disqualify me from relentlessly pursuing people and trying to represent His love to them because I mess up. Though I feel like the moon, full of craters and scars, it is still the instrument He chose to reflect the Son.
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