Choosing the Right Accessories

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator...Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each

other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive.

-----Colossians 3:9 - 10, 12 - 13

The word from this passage that stuck out was "chosen." A friend used it recently when she spoke of a woman who didn't believe she was one of the chosen. I bristled. This is predestination theology, a teaching that Wesley countered, a belief that the God of immense and limitless grace would hand-pick only a few to be saved was offensive to the sinner who knew the grace of God. For John Wesley, the word "chosen" was a club used by those who saw themselves as better than others, those who might say, "Who needs grace when God has chosen?"

The word offends me as well. Yet it is an appropriate word for this morning--if I keep in mind that God has already done the greatest choosing. He chose to save this broken world, a world He first chose to create. The word has meaning only in light of those basics. We are His chosen ones in that He chose to enter this world and befriend us. God made that choice.

And so, as one of the chosen, I am a new creation. The old self has been taken off like raggedy, stained and stinking garments. I now wear a fresh, clean, and newly whole garment--a garment that can be accessorized with trinkets of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness. All desirable accessories...that can all be worn at the same time. They won't clash. The completed outfit won't be garish or flashy.

The amazing thing is that I can choose my accessories. I get to decide which to add to my new self-outfit. Having been chosen, I now choose what I will put onto this new garment. My choices are often they either/or: I can choose ridicule or compassion. I can choose spite or kindness. I can boast or be humble. I can be quiet or I can make sure my presence is known. I can demand action or I can choose patience. I can reject or I can show tolerance. I can hold a grudge or I can forgive. All are choices to complete my garment.  Choices I am allowed to make...as my Lord chose to forgive me. As I am being renewed in knowledge after the image of the creator, I choose the pieces that will best reflect my Lord.

Holy and awesome God, it is amazing that you chose to take on this world for salvation. In my humanness, I am dumbfounded. You don't walk away from us...you don't let us suffer in the mess we've made. You save us. You chose to save us. Help me with my choices, Lord. It is amazing that in Christ, I can choose to love those who have hated me. I can choose to forgive those who have hurt me. I can choose to show them kindness and compassion for the wounds they have suffered. Lord, I know I cannot do these things on my own. It is only through you. Only through the work of the Holy Spirit in me can I choose to put on the
things that never adorned my old self-garment. Thank you, Father.