Can you remember that classic childhood favorite of
Hide-n-Seek? It seemed to be a love or hate relationship for most kids with
that game. Being the insanely intense person that I am I either got a panic
attack waiting to be found or felt unprecedented anxiety at the possibility
that maybe my friends were too well concealed and I wouldn’t find them at all!
I always hated being the seeker but I kind of liked hiding. Even with the killer
anticipation of waiting to be found, I always thought I had snagged the best
spot on the premise. Whether that was true or not could be debated, but at the
time I was convinced.
Then I got a little older. I started babysitting and working
in a daycare and I became the “adult” in the game. I can remember telling the
kids that I had a great spot to hide in and they would never find me. No sooner
had they closed their eyes to start counting then I would sit in a chair, in
the middle of the room and throw a blanket over my head. Of course, they found
me immediately because I didn’t really want to play that game and tried to make
it end as soon as possible. “Miss Meaghan,” they would say, “you didn’t hide
good. We found you right away,” which is what I wanted anyway. And they never
really understood why my “great” hiding spot was not so great.
As Christians we play a game of hide-n-seek too; not so much
with God (at least, it shouldn’t be with God) but with the world around us.
Colossians 3:3 says, “For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Now the world might find that just a little bit demeaning and damaging to the
self-esteem. That’s not encouraging. That’s not uplifting. That doesn’t make me
feel better about myself. Well, it isn’t meant too. The gospel was never
intended to make us feel good about ourselves, but rather to help us realize
how spiritually bankrupt we are. Only when we come to the end of ourselves do
we understand that it is in Christ we are new creations, in Christ we have been
made right with God, in Christ we have the will and power to be and do all that
we were meant to become and accomplish. As one brilliant man once said, “When
the Creator of matter tells you that you matter, then you have purpose
and then you have self-esteem.” (Brad Stine, conservative Christian comedian)
So as Christians we should all have come to a place of recognizing that we are
nothing and, in effect, end in failure. It is only Christ that makes us alive.
Romans 8:29 tells us for what purpose we have been saved –
that we might be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Ah ha, here’s where
the hide-n-seek comes into play (no pun intended). If our hearts, if my
heart,
is soft to the Holy Spirit’s voice and growing daily in the knowledge of
Christ, then you and I will become hidden in Jesus. To be dead and hidden
literally means “to cease functioning” and “to be concealed.” As we continue to
walk with Jesus we will disappear and only Christ will be visible.
I want to live the kind of radical Christianity (which I
suppose should be typical Christianity) where the people around me look at me
and try to find me, but all they can see is Jesus. I will never be perfect;
that is for sure. But I would rather have them see Jesus first. I would rather
have them struggle to find me. Honestly, I’m not all that impressive. There
really is nothing worth looking at. But Jesus! He is the One. How much better
to see Him, even if it means that Meaghan goes unnoticed.
If you want to find the best hiding spot, hide yourself in
Christ. Bury yourself in His Word and in His presence each day, that we might
humbly say with the apostle Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no
longer I who live but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
(Galatians 2:20)
