Everybody, Always

both dropped dead. It sounds more than a little harsh. We throw a couple
of one-dollar bills wrapped in a twenty in the offering plate and feel
great. We donate a little to a charity and get a wristband or throw a few
bucks at a Kickstarter campaign and get an album or a hoodie. We feel
terrific. Even if Ananias and Sapphira gave away only a quarter of the
money they got from selling their land, I bet they would have bested my
most generous year. So why did they drop dead?
I don’t think anyone knows for sure. My best guess, though, is God
saw they were posing and wasn’t happy about it. They were saying to
everyone around them that they were at a place they hadn’t arrived at yet.
They probably wanted to be the people who would give it all away. They
weren’t trying to fool everyone. They had probably said what they hoped
to do so often they actually thought they had done it. The fact was, they
just weren’t there yet. Me neither. It’s the problem posers like all of us
have.
Chilling words followed from a man named Peter, whom they had
given the money to— “You have not lied just to human beings but to
God.” We all do that a lot more than we’d like to admit. Every time we
try to pass ourselves off in front of people like we’re at a different place
than we really are, we end up back at the wax museum.
I don’t think God’s in the business of striking people dead who
misrepresent where they are with Him. If He were, who would be left
standing? The story about Ananias lets us know, however, just how
strongly God feels about us keeping it real and transparent and honest
about where we actually are, rather than faking it and pretending we’re
someone we only hope to be someday. I think God can use us wherever
we are. The Bible is full of stories of people who messed up. It seems like
failure in the world was a requirement for success with God. People who
are becoming love keep it real about who they are right now, while living
in constant anticipation about who God’s helping them become.