
My favorite character in all... (which I won't share who it is) has an amazing amount of confidence. I would call it "swagger". What draws me to this individual is not the perfectness of their choices or actions, but instead the confidence and swagger they carry. Does this character make mistakes? Yep. This character is not the star, and many times throughout the show this character messes up A LOT! But there are a few scenes that brings us to see their heart, and that's what blows me away!
We can sure put on a show for people can't we? A show on the outside that we want people to believe, because if we allowed them access to our heart, people might destroy it. Why would we offer such a valuable organ to people that do not know the value of it's carrier?
I love vulnerable. I love real. I love that we can mess up a lot, make really poor choices, and yet, we can still love, we can still move on. We can pick up the pieces and start again. I love pieces, a million busted up, scattered pieces. The more the better...because I've seen God pick up a million shattered pieces and create a NEW masterpiece. Want to know how to win my loyalty? Trust me with confidence in telling me something, you wouldn't trust anyone else with. I love confidence. I am drawn to it. Like the confidence of a police officer that has to uphold the law when he is being spit at, cussed at, or called a "pig". Like the confidence of someone that can take a nasty remark, smile and nod and come up with a mirrored reflection that just bounces off and never leaves a mark. Confidence like John Travolta when he just gets done performing the greatest dance show ever and brakes free from the adulterous woman in Staying Alive.... swagger.
We can most definitely have that same confidence in Christ. There is no need to hide our light or use Christianity to defend. We do not need to be ashamed because of the God we serve. We don't have to worry about what the world might do, or the devil might tempt us with....we have Christ. The Bible tells us that we were not given a spirit of being timid. We were provided with a Christian "Swagger". It doesn't look like arrogance, it looks like confidence. We don't have to push our views, we don't have to join in the games of the world...we need to overcome, resist, stand, we need to share, to pray to walk along side those that are seeking. We need to look different than the average world. People will be drawn to the "swagger". No one wants to have something that you have to hang your head down at, cry all the time, full of problems and issues...although that will always be part of "real life." People do not want to see Christians acting the same way the world acts, or coming up with some new age movement that blurs Jesus with Witchcraft. They want to see steadfast, immovable, never changing. They want and need stability, structure, confidence and assurance. People want to know that the God they trust in, still answers prayers, still gives peace where it seems impossible, still provides hope. People want to see that even though "real life" happens, they can still strut in confidence that "God's Got This!"