Does Perfection Precede Purpose? JKO shares some lessons from the Bible

What do we do when our life is not perfect, when relics of our failures and mistakes surround us in our minds or everywhere we look? Do we wait to have it all together before we show up to help? Do we have to become perfect before we pursue our dreams?
 
I know the struggles that some of us face daily with limiting thoughts. I know the desire to hide away until our lives are perfect before doing the things we yearn to do. I know this because I struggle too. In this episode, I share the lessons I’ve learnt from the Bible about waiting for perfection before we live in our purpose. 

The production process of this episode blessed me so much and I pray listening will bless you too. Please leave a review to let me know if it did. 

References in this episode

YOUR PAST DOES NOT MATTER TO GOD: The Story of Tamar https://judithmusing.blogspot.com/2013/02/your-past-does-not-matter-to-god-story.html

CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD: When Your Kinsman Does not Help https://judithmusing.blogspot.com/2018/02/conversations-with-god-when-your.html 

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Music Credit: https://indiefy.me/wanted-carter

Transcript

Hi there. This is Messy Can’t Stop Her and I'm your host, Judith Kambia Obatusa- JKO.

I was just thinking of something, and a thought came into my mind. This is a limiting thought, it is a thought that many of us who are in the trenches of life think when we get any spark to share, counsel, advise, help or start something. That thought is “I shouldn't be the one talking about this thing” And just as this thought flitted across my mind, another thought, which I believe is the Holy Spirit came into my mind to tell me why I should be the one talking about it. And He brought my mind the experiences I have had where sadly, people look down on some because of certain things in their lives and they say that they are not worthy of being able to do certain things. In the faith community, there is a scripture that is normally used to back this up, I Timothy 3:1-12 where the Bible talks about a man who can lead in church should be one who has control over his family. And we know that there are Pastors’ children who do the opposite of what they were taught, how they were brought up. We have people with perfect homes, great mom and dad, loving relationship between mom and dad, loving care of their children, all opportunities possible and they still miss their way. They make mistakes that put them into years of negative situations. And if we all have to have perfect families, perfect children, perfect lives, then these people whose stories am about to share should never have been spoken about. If perfection precedes service and purpose, then none of these things that I'm about to say will not be true. However, they are true because those things are also in the Word of God. 

As I drove along, the Lord began to remind me about me the woman in Luke 7:37-47, some historians have said she was Mary Magdalene, the first woman who saw Jesus after his resurrection. This same woman was described as an immoral woman, a woman who was a sinner, the Passion Translation described her as a woman who was known to all as a prostitute, while the Message Bible referred to her as the town harlot. Yet, not only did Jesus allow her to use her tears to wash his feet and her hair to dry his feet, Jesus told Simeon, the pharisee in whose home he was a guest that though her sins were many, they were forgiven by reason of her faith. Jesus allowed the town harlot to touch him. We've heard of people that say when a woman is seeing her period, she can't be allowed to do holy things. But if God, God in the form of man named Jesus Christ can allow a prostitute known in the community to use her tears to wash his feet and her hair to dry them, then I don't know. 

The whole idea behind this conversation is to tell you that you don't have to wait until you have become perfect to begin to do the things that you yearn to do. Faith is defined in the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11 verse one as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. The Passion Translation says that faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen. 

Note the second part - becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for – that is the part that this conversation is about. 

Verse two of Hebrews chapter 11 says that it was by faith that people of old won God’s approval. According to the Message Bible, The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd. If you’re a woman in the trenches of life, whose life is messy and who has been rejected, ridiculed or sidelined by self or others, let me tell you about three more of our ancestors. Women who many would say are not good enough. Women who may have been told by their own selves or by others, that people like them should not be talking. 

I'll start with Tamar. You will find her story in Chapter 38 of Genesis. She was the wife of Judah's first son. According to the Bible, Judah's first son Er was a wicked man so God took his life. In the culture, when the man dies, they give their wife to the next sibling so that she can birth children for that lineage, so that the lineage of that first son does not end with his death. So Tamar was married to the second son. Onan, the second son did not want to birth a heir for his late brother, so when he sleeps with her, he will pour out his semen on the ground so that she won't get pregnant. And God, according to the Bible, killed him for his wickedness. So, Tamar was now meant to marry Judah’s third son and Judah didn't want to lose that son, so he asked Tamar to go back to her parents. He told her to go back to her parents’ home and remain a widow until he's grown up enough to marry her. He never meant to do that. He just wanted to send her back to her parents to protect his son. He didn’t want to lose that son. So she went back to her parents, and then when that one grew up and was old enough, she saw that Judah had no plans for her to marry their son. And please, I know some of you libertarians will want to start an argument of how God was. Why should we men, blah, blah, blah, please. That was a culture in the day, so let's not go there. Please don't let us lose the message. And Tamar decided to dress up as a shrine prostitute and go to the wayside where she knew that Judah was passing, and Judah stopped and slept with her without knowing that she was his daughter-in-law. At this time, Judah had become a widower as his wife had died during the time, Tamar was in her parent’s home.

Remember, what I'm talking about is that you don't have to be perfect for God to use you. God loves you with all your imperfection, and he will go after you. He's the one who goes. The Bible tells us he leaves the 99 and goes after the one missing, the one that has gone wayward, the one that has gone his own way. He loves you so much. He loves us so much that there's nothing we do or we've done or we're doing that will stop him from chasing us and using us for his glory. All we need is faith and willingness. 

And so Judah, who is also in the lineage of Jesus, now went and slept with this person. And she now told him when he offered to bring her a goat as payment, you know what? Give me your signet, bracelets and staff, let me hold on to them until you return with the goat. And he did, but when he went back to the place where he saw her, he did not find her. And after some time, he heard that she was pregnant, and he was like, that is a crime, bring her out to be burned. She was not supposed to get pregnant. She was not supposed to be sleeping with anybody but waiting for that son that he didn't mean to give her anyway. And he now came to her, who did it? Who did it? And Tamar said, it is the owner of this signet, bracelets and staff that I'm pregnant for? And he saw that it was his own things. And he was like, you've been more honorable than I am. So Tamar gave birth to twins, Perez and Zerah. Perez is the second generation in the lineage of Jesus.

Another woman in the lineage of Jesus whose life was imperfect yet God chose to come through that lineage. God chose her to bring his glory. God chose to bring his deliverance and salvation to the world through her.

Even today people will judge these people and I want to tell you that if you are in a woman. In a chaos. In a messy life. Your life isn't perfect. You are navigating a bad marriage, problems with your children, workplace troubles, financial troubles, the consequences of past mistakes and people are trying to beat you down, I want you to be encouraged by these stories I'm sharing today. 

I'm a Christian and when the Lord wants to talk to me, he uses His word to talk to me and these were the things that came up on my drive to Church. I actually have a post about Tamar on my blog, I'll put the link in the show notes in this episode so let me not get carried away. I get carried away you guys. Anyway, another woman is Rahab. She was a professional prostitute and she lived in the most strategic location for a prostitute in those days her house was on the wall of Jericho, so it was easy for men to sneak in and out. When God wanted to destroy Jericho for their wickedness and things that they did two spies were sent from Israel to go check out the land and when those two spies got to Jericho they lodged at Rahab’s. 

Somehow, the king of Jericho heard that the spies from Israel were staying at Rahab’s place, so he sent some of his men to go there and capture them. When the men of Jericho came to Rahab’s place, she hid the spies and told the king’s men they had left. She then proceeded to give them false directions about the was the spies had gone. After they left, she told the spies the way to go and they were able to escape. However, before they left, she told them that she knew that the Israelites powerful and God was with them. She said, this Jericho is going to be taken over by the Israelites. When you come to destroy Israel, when you come to destroy Jericho, please do not destroy me and my family. The men promised her that they will show kindness to her and her family and that they will not destroy them. They now asked her to leave the red rope she had used to let them down from the window as they left her house hanging from the window so that when they come, they will recognize her place. They promised her that everyone who is under her roof when they come to destroy Jericho will be saved. So Rahab’s entire family – her mother, father, brothers and sisters - stayed in her house and when Israel came to destroy Jericho, they saved her family. When she got to Israel, Rahab was the mother of Boaz, great-great-great-great grandson of Perez, one of Tamar’s twins for Judah. So Rahab became a matriarch in the lineage of Jesus. The story of Rahab can be found in Joshua chapter two.

The third woman I want to share her story with you today is Ruth the Moabite woman. Moabites were people that did not serve the God of Israel and God had told the Israelites not to marry them. And yet Naomi husband moved his family there to live and allowed his sons to marry Moabite women. Naomi and her husband and their sons did what God said they should not do. But that didn't make God say, I'm done with you, I will not save you, I will not help you, and your life is now totally useless. God didn't say that. 

Naomi decided to return home to Israel after losing her husband and her sons and Ruth, one of her daughters-in-law said, wherever you go, I will go, your people will be my people, your God will be my God. She refused to go back to her people. She followed her mother-in-law back to Israel and when they got there, they were living in penury.

In those days when a man dies, the family, the next man in line will take the man's wife and his property and look after them. The person whose right it was to help Naomi and Ruth did not step up when they returned. So Ruth decided what can I do to help my mother in law? Let me go and walk in the field and pick up after the harvesters anything that they did not pick so that we can have food to eat. Naomi agreed and gave her her blessing. Boaz was the owner of the field that Naomi happened to go to. He saw her and decided to help them when he heard that she was Naomi’s wonderful daughter-in-law who has been helping her after she lost her husband and sons. In line with the culture he decided to find out who the closest relative who was in line to support them was. In the process, he also found out that Naomi’s husband had some land and whoever stepped up to take care of her and her daughter-in-law will also be responsible for the land. So, he went to meet the said close relative and with the land, this should have sweetened the deal. The said relative wanted the land but when he was remined that whoever wants that land will have to also take care of Naomi and Ruth, the person who's right it was did not want to do it. 

So even when people don't think you're good enough, God will set up those who he will use to help you fulfill the destiny that he has created you for. I have a post about this on my blog as well. I'm going to put that in the show notes too. 

So this man Boaz went and talked to that guy and said will you help? And that's how that one said, no, you can have them if YOU want to help them. So, Boaz married Ruth. The Moabite Woman, Ruth gave birth to Jesse, Boaz is the father of Jesse and Jesse is the father of David from who’s lineage Jesus came. 

These three women in the Bible, these three women with messy lives, preferably hidden, are in the lineage of Jesus. Then, of course, the first story I told you about the woman who was a prostitute. 

So wherever you are in life right now and you think, oh my God, I won't go out helping my community, I won't attend church or help in church. I have no voice because my life isn't perfect. It's such a mess. People like me should not be talking. People like me should not be showing up. If you're feeling that way, I want you to know that it's not true. If these imperfect women didn't go about doing good, doing their best, Jesus’ lineage would be incomplete. 

And to make things even more interesting, in the list of the Heroes of Faith found in Chapter 11 of the Book of Hebrews, Rahab the Harlot was one of them. She is in verse 31. She was actually referred to as the harlot Rahab in that verse meaning that God acknowledges the mess of our lives but is not ashamed of it. If God is not ashamed of you, despite the chaos, crisis and challenges that you’re immersed in, should you be ashamed of yourself? Should you relegate yourself to the backwoods of life? Should you hide your head in the sand so that naysayers, haters and bullies don’t see or hear you?

You have greatness in you. Leave spaces where you are isolated, where you are pitted, where all you are allowed to be is a prayer or charity project. Where you are overlooked. Where you are rejected. And God will bring you to the place where your experience will be valued. Where your humanity will be valued. Where your person will be valued. Where the little that you know. The little that you have to give Will be received with great value and appreciation. And your influence will be enlarged. Don't write yourself off. Even when people around you are trying to write you off, are telling you that you are a write off. I want you to be encouraged by the stories of these women. 

Even when Jesus died, Mary Magdalene was one of the first women to get there. And the angel told them he has risen. They were the first ones to tell the world that Jesus had risen. That same woman that wasn't good enough. That same woman that people laughed at. Ridiculous. How can people like her be near Jesus? How can she touch the Son of God? My sister, my beloved woman in the mess in the trenches of life, you are worthy. You are worthy of touching the Son of God. You are worthy of speaking to change lives. You are worthy of showing up. That's what I'm here to tell you today. Don't give up.  As I always say, when we don’t give up, then, messy will not be able to stop us.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Messy Can't stop her. I hope you have a very good day. Bye. See you next time.