I am indebted to Andy Stanley for several key insights that I have incorporated into my life.  One of those Stanley gems was, “Do for one, what you would like to do for everyone.”  I still remember what I was doing when I heard that podcast.  I was cleaning out my garage and using the podcast to block out the boredom of the task.  When he said, “do for one, what you would like to do for everyone,” it was like a thousand pound weight was lifted off my chest because I have struggled so much with never feeling adequate to get to everyone who needs care.

Another insight that the Pastor of Northpoint in Atlanta, GA, has shared, is (I’ll paraphrase) “don’t try to resolve all the tension between opposing views and balancing truths.”   For example, there is the view that everyone should be welcomed into the church and then there’s the view that we should have standards that will cause some to turn away.  There’s the view that the church is there to receive the unchurched and the non-believer.  Then there’s the view that the church is there to care for the saints and help them to grow.  There’s the view that we should be frugal and save.  Then there’s the view that we should be generous and give what we have away.  There’s the view that we should plan and the view that we should be spontaneous.  There’s the view that we need to celebrate and have fun.  Then there’s the view that we should be disciplined and work hard.

Some people are only able to adhere to one perspective.  I grew up in churches in which you were basically met at the front door with our standards of holy living and if you weren’t ready to get with the program, you knew you didn’t belong.  On the other hand, we have some churches today in which any mention of sin or our need to measure up to God’s standards creates a storm of protest and accusations of judgmentalism.  What if we just faced the fact that truth has tension and if you remove the tension you have a caricature of truth.

Jesus was the ultimate example of the tension of truth.   The standards he taught were so high that even the legalistic Pharisees were choking on his truth.  For example, he said in the Sermon on the mount things like, “you say if you commit adultery you are guilty of breaking the law, I say if you look on a woman to lust after her you have committed adultery with her in your heart.”  “You say, thou shalt not murder but I say if you are angry with your brother you are guilty.”  Those are some pretty high standards.   At the same time that Jesus was giving the tough side of truth, he was tenderly receiving the worst sinners into his social circle.  Even the hated tax collectors felt at ease in his presence.  Amazing! Absolutely amazing!

So how do we navigate the freedom that is in Jesus Christ?  I am not saying that we should just pick the principle we want to live with each day and find a scripture to support it.  The lesson here is that we are to live all of our principles at full strength.  We don’t quit being holy in order to be lenient and forgiving.  We don’t lower our standards to show grace, we don’t give up appropriate mourning for a life of celebration, we don’t need to give up diligent labor to have outrageous fun.  I heard Jack Welch, the hard driving former CEO of GE say that some days he and his colleagues played fifty two holes of golf.  He said, “we worked hard and we played hard.”  There’s a lesson in Jack Welch’s example. God wants us to live at full strength.  You don’t have to stop being merciful to start being holy.  Purity actually makes mercy meaningful.  If a person with no standards shows me mercy it isn’t really mercy is it?  It’s just leniency.  If a person of virtue sees me sin and shows me mercy, it really feels like grace because grace is not their only option; they could with integrity judge me.  The biblical word for joining together the two extremes into one life is “fullness.”

I leave you with this passage to ponder and incorporate into your life.  It talks about how God puts leaders and mentors into our lives to make us whole people who live in “fullness.”

“ … Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:13 (NIV)

I know people who are “fullness” people.  In general, they are delightful to be around.  They are serious and they are fun.  They are holy and they are merciful.  They are firm and they are gentle.  They are frugal and they are generous.  They are disciplined and they are spontaneous.  They are good and they are mischievous.  They are talkers and they are listeners.  They are sober and they are silly.  In a word, they are “mature.”  They attain to the “fullness of Christ.”  They are how I want to be when I grow up.