Marble Elephants

I love quotes. If you've known me very long, you've probably noticed I post them regularly for instant messenger and facebook statuses; if you took a look around my room, you would find them posted to my wall, on the bulletin board, and on my desk. Some are funny, some are inspirational, and most I can't remember. Still, I'm always on the hunt for new quotes and clever sayings.

So it was that in my recent quote hunting one morning I came across one that made me laugh. Not so much because it was funny...it was ridiculous.

"A fool-proof method for sculpting an elephant: first, get a huge block of marble; then chip away everything that doesn't look like an elephant."

That piece of advice seemed laughable to me. A huge block of marble does not resemble an elephant in any way, shape, or form to begin with, so chipping away everything that does not look like an elephant is likely to leave you with...a large pile of marble chips? Maybe it's just me, but that seems like doing things backwards. It would make more sense to look at a picture of an elephant and chip the marble to match.

Strangely, though, we seem to live our Christian lives with a similar motto.

"A fool-proof method for sculpting a Christ-like character: first, get a huge block of sinful humanity; then chip away anything that doesn't look like Christ."

Isn't is absurd? But tell me you haven't done it. I know I have. I look at a lump of bad habits, thought patterns, and sinful tendencies and think, "If I could just get these things out of my life, I wouldn't have such a hard time being a Christian. Just quit doing this, thinking that...Shape up, Character!" And that's when I set about to chip away every bit of marble that doesn't look like an elephant.

Why don't we quit trying to do it backwards? Progress in our Christian walk simply won't happen by carving off whatever we think doesn't look like Christ. To be formed in His image we have to follow the pattern and pray, "Let this mind be in me which was also in Christ Jesus."

Next time you start focusing on ridding yourself of the bad, try refocusing. Just follow the pattern. And remember, Jesus is the Master Sculptor. Let Him guide the fashioning of your Christian character and it will come out to be a replica worthy of the Original.