A Good Name- THE RESPONSE OF A GOOD NAME

Remember when I stated that no one likes a hypocrite?  I don't think even a hypocrite likes himself.  The reason is, he is trying to look or be a particular part, but he knows deep down he misses the mark and he hates it.  He is conflicted until he actually becomes the man he hopes to be.  I don't want to be a hypocrite with you, so I'll tell you up front, I have an instinctive combative and responsive nature that began early in me and was fine-tuned as I got older.  This is the kind of guy you want in your foxhole in a firefight, or playing defensive end for your football team.  But he is a headache for you when he needs to be a peacemaker.  In the area of peacemaking I was everything that I didn't want to be, and tried not to be.  I had a hard time turning the other cheek.  If someone insulted or spoke aggressively with me, I would turn the table and amp it up even more.  The scriptures above were good ideas for the man I wanted to be.  But at that time, I just couldn't make it happen.  Little wonder that my name was mud with certain aggressive and offensive people who had my wrath returned to them.  Little wonder that "self-centered and arrogant" were words that described me, and I did not have a good name because of it.  I wanted to be the man in the scripture above.  I tried to be this man.  I tried to convince others I was this man.  But they could see through it and sensed my struggle with hypocrisy.  That was then.

The hope I have and now understand from my own struggle with not giving the godly response I should have given is that a man can change.  This gives me hope for brawlers, abusers, narcissists and all kinds of offensive behaviors, including my own.  The man we want to be can be the man we will become if we ask God to help us be this man.  We do not have to settle with our immaturity or uncontrollable condition and not change the course of our life.  We have been given the ability to change and to become Christ-like through the discipling work of the Holy Spirit.  But we must want this change more than our rights to our self.  We must die a death to self to have this disobedient nature yoked to Christ.  When it is yoked, then it is under His management and the characteristics we read above are cheerfully embraced.  If we do not submit to Him, then our nature is still under our own management and this leads to doing what we naturally do.  We will not change this nature.  We will try and always fail for we do not have the power to will self to make a lasting change.

A good name will follow when a man becomes the man that Christ can make of him.  Instead of arrogant and self-centered, he becomes humble, loving and serving.  The nature of Christ becomes the description people use instead of the old nature of the old man.

I said that I do not want to be a hypocrite, so I will say that I continue to have a choice to make when I enter a trigger response alert, and when I'm tempted to go back to my old nature.  This trigger I speak of is a hot button that would set me off when hit by an offender.  It is generally an old fear that was present early on in my life and is touched by an aggressor.  Some people still offend me, and that button gets mashed.  The difference now is that I know I have no obligation to that old man and his ways.  I know that the old ways for me are not the best ways.  I want better for my King and myself, and it begins within my heart with my valuing obedience and honor to Christ more than expressing myself.  This is when the Holy Spirit can begin the gentle transformation in our life that leads to peace and influence.

To have a good name will require that we make a good response to those things that will challenge our nature.  Let us allow Jesus to teach us how to respond in every situation and the good name we desire will follow.