The Funeral Version of Your Life - Remixed

I was recently struck by Romans 4:18-20 and the revised version of Abraham's life.

Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping—believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, “That’s how many descendants you will have!” And Abraham’s faith did not weaken, even though, at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead—and so was Sarah’s womb.

Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises.

What? That isn't the way it happened! Abraham wavered. He had a child with another woman when he lost hope. He threw his wife under the bus twice when it was expedient to do so. Did God just forget?!? Apparently, yes.

I needed verse 5 to explain this conundrum: But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.

Now you have to know something about me. Judmentalism and holding a grudge are two of my spiritual gifts. I have no problem recognizing sin and calling it such. I have a serious problem with condemning a person and writing them off from here on out.

But I began to see that there are two versions of our lives. There is the day to day, factual version. The one we read about usually in the Old Testament. Then there is the New Testament retelling. This second version omits the mistakes, sins, faults, bad judgement. Just look at the "Hall of Faith" in Hebrews 11 - Noah (got naked and drunk), Abraham (fathered a semi-illigitimate child), Sarah (laughed at God's promise), Isaac (strongly favored one child over another leading to a very dysfunctional family), Jacob (name itself means deceiver), Moses (forbidden from entering the Promised Land), and David (adulterer and murderer). All are held up as models of faith and righteousness.

So what's going on? The grace of God. Through a belief in the death and resurrection of Christ, we have the opportunity for the New Testament remix version of our lives. In this version we are counted righteous and all is forgotten. That certainly doesn't mean we can live our live in a spiritual pig pen and roll around in the mud of sin thinking it'll all wash in the end. That kind of a life indicates a heart not actually committed to Christ. But today is not the final word. My screw up and failure today is not what will be written in my obit.

So I thought this should go on my other blog, but I think this is something we all need to think about. It hit me at a funeral I attended recently. I thought, no one says anything bad at a funeral about the deceased. If you are a truly awful person, no one show up anyways. Everyone else gets the funeral version of their life - the remix.

But right now, in this present time, we are all living the actual version of our lives. What is extremely cool is that God is already seeing us through the funeral version! God sees the righteousness of Christ when he looks at me. That's grace.

Now it's my turn to extend the same kind of grace. I want to see people as the funeral version of themselves - the remix. So even though everyone is screwed up in one way or another, I want to see the New Testament retelling. Because apparently this current version is simply the working copy. When I am disappointed in someone's actions I really want to say to myself, I wonder what this looks like in the funeral version. How is God going to turn this around and use it?