A Groveling Servant

I was listening to a podcast yesterday while running (and by running I mean walking) from Matt Chandler. He is a pastor at the Village Church in Texas, and if you ever have free time I highly recommend him for your listening pleasure. ( If I ever take up stalking he will be my first victim.)
In his sermon on Colossians he made a comment that I haven't been able to shake. It's one of those comments that really gets you thinking about what you are really striving for in life.
To paraphrase, it went something like this: "Every single living human being that existed since the beginning of time and that will exist until the end of time will glorify God. This will happen in one of two ways. Either I will stand at His feet when I die and He will say 'Well done, good and faithful servant' and I will pass through the gates of Heaven and do all sorts of cool Heaven things, or I will stand at His feet when I die and He will say 'Who are you? Surely I have never known you' and my access to Heaven will be swiftly and assuredly denied. Either way, what happens to us glorifies the will of God."
So my choice really isn't "Do I glorify God or not?" But it is, "How am I going to glorify God?" Even those who call themselves unbelievers are going to glorify Him in one way or another, whether they like it or not. (HA HA!)
The Bible is very clear in Isaiah 45:23 that every knee will bow and every tongue will swear. He didn't say every believer. He included everyone. Which means, at some point in time, every non-believer will become a believer and stand before the Throne of God. And every believer and non-believer alike will be honoring God with his life, either by entering the eternal Kingdom of Heaven because they loved Jesus Christ as their savior, or by being damned for all of eternity because you denied the work He did for you on the cross. (BTW, just because you don't believe that He did that for you doesn't change the fact that He did that for you.)

So that puts me back to my initial question: What am I striving for in life? I know I what to glorify God, and that seems like such a simple task. I go to church, try to make Godly choices, pray, ask for guidance, read the Bible, tithe, etc. etc. etc. Is that enough? When my time comes, and all is said and done, will I be able to walk to the Lord of Lords and hold my head high, knowing that He will say "Well done, good and faithful servant?" My guess is, no.

What I believe is that, if I ever really know Jesus Christ in this life, on this earth, then I will never be able to approach Him with my head held high. The only way I will be able to approach The God of the Universe, who became flesh and died an unspeakable death so I can remain in His presence forever is on my hands and knees, groveling, knowing that what I do on this earth could NEVER be enough. Isn't that the whole point of His crucifixion? If I could, somehow, do all the right things and earn His grace, then there would be no point to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His grace can NEVER be earned. It was a gift from our father. It isn't a salary that He pays you for doing good deeds. That is why it always boggles my mind when people say they can't approach God because their life is too messed up. We are ALL too messed up. We will ALWAYS be too messed up. To think that we can ever clean up enough for God is preposterous. God wants you to come to him messed up. Because He is the only one who can clean you up. Not you. NEVER you.

So how do I want to glorify God with my life? By admitting that I am all screwed up, that I can't fix any of it, and to rely on Him to mold me into His image. If I let this happen every day, or even every second of my life, I believe I will proudly enter the Kingdom of Heaven, crawling on my hands and knees and worshiping at the feet of Jesus.