So How Are You Today?

     The standard answer is, “I’m okay. How are you?” Most people offer this answer automatically, without thought. I know I do that. Asking how someone is has become a simple formality of greeting -- a segue into conversation rather than an expression of caring for someone’s wellbeing.
     If you don’t believe me, try this: walk up to someone and say, “Hi, how are you?” Then, when they say, “I’m fine. How are you?” say, “I’m terrible.” Odds are, they won’t know how to respond. They weren’t looking for a true answer to what they asked, they were just looking for a pleasant conversation -- most likely a conversation about nothing remotely important.
     Perhaps we should come up with a new form of greeting that’s more accurate. Perhaps every time we’re asked how we are, we should say, “I’m a terrible sinner deserving of hell, but God is good and I’m alive through His grace.” Wouldn’t that be strange? I think, though, that after no more than two or three days of giving this response, we wouldn’t think about it anymore. It would become no more meaningful than the answers we give now.
     I think the real solution is to stop living a scripted life. Stop giving the expected answers, start thinking, and start being true and real. This is obviously much broader in application than the art of greetings. It goes far beyond not saying you’re fine when you’re not fine. It means taking off the shell you’ve formed and letting people see the messy, sticky insides of your life.
     This, too, can become a scripted solution. It can become a 10-step guide to being real, which would defeat the purpose. The taking off of the shell can’t be a one-time deal, nor can it be a one-size-fits-all deal. It has to be a daily ordeal, a continuous struggle towards purpose.
     So if we’re honest about it, how are we? How should we be? Are we who we should be? I dare you to actually think about those questions instead of just reading them. If you’re like me, they just passed through your eyes, into your brain, and dissolved into the vast emptiness of thought. When you figure out the answers, ask yourself both “why?” and “how?”
     The pastor of a local church I attended a few times used an illustration of how a Christian ought to be. He said that his young daughter, when she was told how Jesus would come and live in her when she was born again, said something both funny and profound. She said, “But Jesus wouldn’t fit in me -- He’d stick out all over!” So let’s ask ourselves a question: if we claim to have Christ in us, why doesn’t He stick out all over?
     The truth of the matter is, the Gospel doesn’t fit the pattern of your life. If you were worshipping the God of the universe every day, and really believed that you are saved by His amazing grace, your day would be going much better than it is. I don’t care how good your day has been; it would be better if you let the Gospel blow apart the pattern in your life.
     If you look at the life of Jesus, He never gave scripted answers to things. The Pharisees and scribes frequently asked Him questions that, to them, had definite and specific answers. What did Jesus do? He offered a fresh perspective, still in line with revealed Scripture yet unheard of among the religious leaders of the time. I think settling for the traditional answer or the normal answer kills our passion and our ability to engage life properly.
     So I suppose it all boils down to one major point. Is God’s grace real to you today? Martin Luther made the point once that we aren’t imaginary sinners. Our sins are real, they’re terrible -- and God’s grace has to be more real to us than that sin. If we’re imaginary sinners, we won’t experience grace. If we’re real sionners -- bold sinners -- then God’s grace to us will be real and bold. So quit living an imaginary life, stop sinning imaginary sins, stop answering imaginary answers, and be real.