Faithful Failures in our own Following

I sat down last night at my desk, like I do almost every night, opened my Bible and read this;
"This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required of stewards that they be found faithful." 1 Corinthians 4:1-2

As my eyes continued to read the rest of the verses my mind however was still stuck on those two verses. I began to ask myself, do others see me as a steward or God, or to a more understandable ear, a mail man in a sense? Do others see me that way? and in that am I faithful to how I am seen, or how I should be seen.

I would argue that many, including myself, do not do so well in this category of following Christ. We may say we follow Christ, we may seem like we follow Christ, however we know deep down that there is something between us and Christ. Whatever that may be. Whether something that is very black and white, or something that has become very gray to our inward eyes. But nonetheless we know that it is a hindrance to our full relationship with Christ, and thus in turn with those we come in contact too.

But here's the thing, many of us, once again including myself, do not do anything to get rid of this hindrance between us and Christ. This is where verse two comes in act. You see verse one states that we are followers, and thus "mail men" of faith, that is we deliver the package of Christ, we represent the package of Christ and we help others find the package of Christ. However, verse two states that even though you claim to be a follower of Christ, even though others view you as a follower of Christ, when it comes down to it... are you faithful to Christ?

You see for many of us we where the "Church clothes". We try our best to read the Bible, and to be honest it slips every now and then, we put on our shirts and shoes on Sunday and sing the songs, lift our hands and take nice little neat notes from the sermon (mine occasionally have doodles in the margins). But the thing is, do we actually understand what we are doing? Do we actually understand the songs we are singing, the notes we are taking... the commitment we have made a covenant with?

I would argue, and take note I am in this as well, that we do not understand... that we simply dawn the church clothes because it is convenient at a certain time in a certain place. But here in 1 Corinthians Paul kind of slaps us in the face. He states that if we are to call ourselves followers of Christ we need to do so by being faithful to the commitment we have made.

So I ask you this... have you ever actually stopped and asked yourself... "What does it mean to follow Christ?" and not all that dumb surface junk you have known since day one. Rather have you searched, dug, have you gotten yourself messy in the true meaning of being not only a Christian but rather a Christ one?

Ask yourself, who am I?