Ricky Williams and holiness

If you follow the NFL, you know that Ricky Williams has decided to play football for the Miami Dolphins again. He's turned over a new leaf. He's been given a new beginning by head coach Nick Saban. No more weed for Ricky. He contritely asked forgiveness from his teammates for leaving them in a tough spot last season. He's a changed man. He's gone from the narcissistic, tokin' tailback to the total team player. When I read about and saw footage of Ricky's comeback, I gave him credit for trying to make amends. In his own way, Ricky's been on a quest for holiness.

Now there's a word you don't hear much about lately: holiness. I'm not talking about the Pope here. I'm talking about the lifestyle that Christians are supposed to live. This isn't the prudish, Quakerish, what you do on Sundays kind of thing. It's a state of being.

Holiness is hard work. Being holy is a lot harder than looking holy. Lot's of people can fake it for an hour or two on Sunday morning. That's easy. It's also why a lot of people that claim to be Christians fake it. The whole time, we're breaking God's heart because the sincerity of our faith is a fraud.

But I'm not talking about you or me, right? We know that if you're a genuine follower of Christ then you've been made holy by God's forgiveness (Romans 3:24). You've been given the ability to approach God whenever and wherever (Hebrews 10:18-19). The hard work of holiness starts soon after your reorientation to what is good and right (Hebrews 12:1-12). Your conversion was a point in time (you were reborn; John 3) but the process of becoming like Jesus Christ is a continual process (2 Corinthians 2:15).

So what is holiness anyway? If it's not the pomposity of religion or the arrogance of belonging to a moral country club, what does it look like in the everyday life of a Christian? To begin with it means you're different...on the inside. The reorientation of your soul and spirit from self-centeredness to others-centeredness has taken place. Quite literally, you have been set apart from others. Not for pomposity or arrogance, but for serving. Your relationship with God has been sealed, but the process of changing your behavior has just begun. It's a process that happens from the inside out.

The process is one that takes discipline and hard work. The process is initiated by God and then you and I participate in the process of becoming holy. Here are some principles of the holiness process found in Hebrews chapter 12: We have to consciously get rid of anything that slows the progress of becoming more like Jesus Christ (v.1a). We can't give up on ourselves or God (v.1b). We must keep the example of Jesus in the forefront of our minds (v.2). We have to get used to the fact that holiness is hard work. It will take self-discipline and accepting discipline from God to keep us consistent (v.3-12).

Holiness is hard work, so we have to work hard at it. When we're not consistent, God's grace is there to forgive. When we are consistent God is standing on the sidelines cheering us on. Either way, God is on our side. His love endures forever. Keep working at being holy.

Have a nice day.