"No Getting Better Than This"
#92-18Presented on The Lutheran Hour on December 29, 2024
By Rev. Dr. Chad Lakies, Guest Speaker
Copyright 2025 Lutheran Hour Ministries
Reflections
Text: Colossians 3:12-17
Our text for today comes from St. Paul's letter to the Colossians 3:1-4, 12-17.
"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. ... Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the Name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."
Here ends our reading.
In the 1997 film As Good As It Gets, we meet the main character Melvin, played by the iconic Jack Nicholson. Melvin is a grumpy writer and he hardly gets along with anyone. He has obsessive-compulsive behaviors, like using a new bar of soap only once for washing his hands, and then disposing of it. He's rude and inconsiderate of the consequences of his words. Most of us don't behave this way, so it's normal that viewers find Melvin to be a rather unattractive character. But we're pulled into the film despite Melvin's eccentricities because we're intrigued by how things might go for Melvin. Still, we also begin to wonder why the people in his life put up with him.
Fairly early in the story, Melvin reluctantly agrees to look after his neighbor's dog for a time. And, while awkward and difficult for someone with Melvin's unique social and compulsive challenges, the experience begins to change Melvin. His hard edges and gruffness begin to soften. We're familiar with this kind of change in classic characters from Christmas movies like Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, or Dr. Seuss's The Grinch. They were different people at the end of their story.
Coupled with Melvin's care for the dog were regular interactions with the only person who would serve him at a restaurant he frequented. Having scared everyone else off, Carol, the waitress (played by Helen Hunt) tolerates serving her difficult customer, ironically becoming the only person Melvin wants as his waitress.
Over time, the relationship between Carol, Melvin, Melvin's neighbor Simon, along with his dog, becomes rather strong yet severely complicated. The high point of the film is a scene in which Melvin's softening manifests in the form of a decision and a confession. To become a little more tolerable to be around, he tells Carol he's begun taking medication for his obsessive-compulsiveness. He confesses that her care has left a mark on him, saying to her in a line that has become widely memorable: "You make me want to be a better man."
It's often at this time of year that many of us are having thoughts about how we might become better. Anticipating the New Year like this seems to be a cultural habit for us Americans. This time of year, if we aren't already considering some resolution, we often feel pressured to do so by almost every kind of media source we regularly use or by friends and family members who ask us about our plans before telling us about theirs. It seems like everyone is thinking or talking about making a change, improving oneself in some way.
But what makes us want to be better? How do we end up in a position like Melvin, who wanted to be better to impress Carol? While Melvin is aimed toward self-improvement by his desire for a relationship, there are all kinds of reasons (why) we might want to improve ourselves and seek new beginnings.
All around us, the good life is on display. Through products, images, and a lot of advertising, we assaulted almost constantly with visions of how our own lives aren't quite good enough and how we could be better—thinner, happier, more productive, wealthier, healthier, and so on. All this is meant to entice us to do something in order to be something.
The writer David Zahl describes all this striving as an effort to be enough. Whether we're chasing wealth, success, physical beauty, or greater social stature, Zahl points out that implicit in all this striving is our belief that once we get enough—of whatever we're chasing—then somehow that will mean that we are enough. If we do enough, we will be enough.
But what counts as enough? That's a tough question to answer. The business magnate John D. Rockefeller, when asked, "How much money is enough?" is famously known to have said, "Just a little bit more." His reply still resonates and is widely applicable. That's often the case when we're chasing a sense of "enoughness" in the way that Zahl means it. When we reflect on ourselves and what we've achieved, it's easy to encounter a sense of disappointment and dissatisfaction. That's because what counts as enough is ultimately a moving target. The writer of Ecclesiastes might call it a "chasing after the wind," suggesting that we're never going to feel like we've arrived at our goal.
One of the ways we Christians are motivated to be better is through the calling placed on our lives as we hear it in the Bible. The words we heard today from St. Paul's letter to the Colossians are an excellent example. They set before us a vision of a kind of life that we might live, characterized as the good life, a life of excellence. It's not the good life just because the Bible says it. Rather, it's the good life because it's life the way God meant it to be. The character traits mentioned there help us imagine ways we might live our own lives better, such as when Paul writes, "put on ... compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience." We're also called to bear with one another, to forgive one another, and to be people of peace.
What a vision! What a calling!
I don't know about you, but I'd sure like to spend my days around people who embody what St. Paul describes. And in fact, I know some people like that. And it's likely you do, too. What's fascinating about everyone I know who is like this is that all of them have something in common: they're all followers of Jesus. Knowing that, I think that gives us a sense of what it takes to become someone who lives like Paul describes.
So how do we get there? Well, it's more than just imitation. All of us can imitate good behaviors, at least for a while. But none of us can become someone whose life truly embodies what Paul describes without having experienced a new beginning. In other words, we have to be made, fashioned into the kind of people who live that way. We don't arrive there through efforts like Melvin's, who tried to improve himself to impress another person. The power to become that kind of person doesn't come from within ourselves. Rather, it comes from outside of us.
Followers of Jesus confess this all the time. They know that on their own, the striving to be enough will come to nothing. It'll be a chasing after the wind. They need some outside help. Coming to that realization that we need help is called repentance. Repentance is a form of coming to the end of ourselves, of giving up, in the sense that we realize and admit we're not able to accomplish our goals, such as becoming better people, on our own.
The key to all of this is meeting Jesus. When we encounter Him, whether it's for the first time today, or once again in a series of encounters we've been having all our lives, we walk away changed. That's because, in meeting Jesus, we meet the One whom Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously called, "the Man for others." He says of Himself that He came to give His life for others. And He did that for you and me. Not only has He earned our redemption—the forgiveness of our sins which reconcile us with God our Creator—but the sacrifice of His very life for us also earned us eternal life with God and set our earthly lives on an entirely new trajectory.
When you meet Jesus, you meet someone whose love for you is so great that, like Melvin in our story, you find yourself wanting to be better, different, more like Jesus, the One who has given everything for you. We want to emulate Him and live our lives as He lived His, selflessly, for others. This new motivation comes from the Holy Spirit at work within you. He initiates a new beginning by working faith in us—a new beginning that's far better than any New Year's resolution, one that moves us beyond any kind of self-improvement. Rather, all year round and for every moment that we know and follow Jesus, the Spirit is at work in us to make us more like God's Son.
And all this is for a purpose. Living according to God's plan for our lives is not just some simple version of following the rules. Rather, as our passage reads, our lives are hidden in Christ. In other words, our lives are a means through which others meet Jesus in us, for as St. Paul says describes a Christian's life elsewhere: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." Our calling is to be people of peace who forgive and bear with others, who are humble, meek, kind, and patient—all of this is so that others might see our lives and through us, come to know the One we follow, Jesus.
Our lives, characterized as they are by the work God is doing in us through the power of His Spirit, are actively witnessing to the truth of God's presence, love, and care for everyone. In other words, people meet Jesus in us—often first through our character and how we care for and treat them—but then through our words, when they become curious about why we are the kinds of people we are, why we live like we do, why we have the hope we have. St. Peter in his first letter said it would work just like this. People will meet Jesus in us through our words and deeds, and through the work of the Holy Spirit, they too will be moved to follow Him.
In his book The Road to Character, writer David Brooks suggests that when we're young, we're often aimed toward cultivating what he calls, our "resumé virtues." During this period, we're trying to make a name for ourselves, build up our skills, and develop what we have to offer to others—all in an effort to create a successful life for ourselves. That's a life lived toward self-improvement for selfish purposes.
Later, however, sometime around midlife, Brooks says we begin to think about what he calls the "eulogy virtues." It's not so much that we're thinking about our funeral, but rather, about our legacy. How will we be remembered?
What's interesting about the eulogy virtues is that they align perfectly with the ways of Jesus. Humility and selflessness, kindness and compassion, peaceableness and a quickness to forgive. Jesus wants to form our lives to fit His mold. There's no getting better than this. Unlike what Melvin was seeking, the mold of Jesus is not a path toward self-improvement. Rather, it's a kind of surrender—surrender to the new beginning that God has worked in us and continues to bring to fruition each day. And as living witnesses, we won't have to be concerned about how we're remembered because Jesus will already be using us as His witnesses in each day of our lives, actively reaching down from heaven in our service and care for others, so that people might meet Him in us.
Listen to God's invitation to follow the way of His Son Jesus. He's calling you to be part of His grand mission to introduce the world to Jesus and grow His kingdom. There is no other way of life that is more meaningful, for no other way of life makes an eternal difference in the lives of others. Only Jesus working through us does that. We can give thanks for how God catches us up into the grandeur of His work. And for the fact that we can leave behind concerns about self-improvement. For God has given us a new self, hidden in Christ, to be His witnesses before the watching world around us. God grants all this to us because of Jesus. Amen.
Reflections for December 29, 2024
Title: Being Christ's people for others
Mark Eischer: You're listening to The Lutheran Hour. For FREE online resources, archived audio, and more, go to lutheranhour.org. Joining us now, here's Lutheran Hour Speaker, Dr. Michael Zeigler.
Mike Zeigler: Thank you, Mark. Today I'm visiting with Dr. Chad Lakies, who was our guest preacher today. He's also a co-worker with us here at Lutheran Hour Ministries. Thanks for joining us, Chad.
Chad Lakies: Hey, thanks for having me, Mike. It's a real privilege.
Mike Zeigler: Chad, in the message today, you reminded us how Jesus meets people through us, through His followers. It's not my first way of thinking about it, to be honest. I typically think, as a preacher I suppose, that people meet Jesus through hearing about the Bible, reading the Bible, people talking about the Bible. How do those two go together—meeting Jesus in the Bible and meeting Jesus in His followers?
Chad Lakies: Yeah. The way that I've come to think about this really does come from Scripture, but also influenced by one of the great Lutherans of the 20th century, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He says about Jesus that "He's the quintessential Man for others," and St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians chapter 2, the back half of verse 20 says, "It's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me."
And so, if Christ is the Man for others and He lives in you and me, then that makes us people for others. And I think that's the way that the world can meet Jesus is through our character, our compassion, our care for other people. In our tradition, we talk about the doctrine of vocation, that God is reaching down from heaven, using all of us in our various roles of responsibility with our gifts to care for other people. It's very often through our actions, not just our words, but through our actions that people meet Jesus in us. To 1 Peter and his encouragement to that persecuted church, live in such a way that people are going to ask you about the hope you have and why you live as you do.
Mike Zeigler: I've heard you tell your story, that you're an adult convert to the Christian faith. Who were some of those people through whom you met Jesus early on in that process?
Chad Lakies: Yeah, I would say probably one of the primary ones would be my father-in-law, who is also a pastor, but his character... he's just gentle of heart. He is attentive as a preacher, but also a mentor. He's wise and just has creative ways of connecting with people. And one of the ways that I saw him being Jesus to me was just through his gentle patience over the period of time that I was converting and coming to learn what it meant to be a follower of Jesus, but also his encouragement. And so, eventually I thought (that) going to seminary and that pathway to becoming a pastor was what God was calling me to. And he was one of the voices in my life who encouraged that and saw that aptitude in me and nudged me even further in that direction.
Mike Zeigler: Well, especially impressive if you were dating his daughter at the time that he was patient with you.
Chad Lakies: Yeah, indeed. And that was a great gift to still have that connection in the family, and he still plays that role to me.
Mike Zeigler: Yeah, you mentioned about leading with character, leading with our actions as opposed to words, at least for starters. In our culture, which is sometimes called post-Christian or maybe even it feels more sometimes anti-Christian, why is that an important way or a helpful way to start to lean into that truth?
Chad Lakies: I think it's non-confrontational. It isn't antagonistic. The church is well known for being known for what we were against. So, as you lead with your character—and maybe you do have judgments, maybe you do have concerns about the ways of the world or people's lives around you, the choices they make, or what have you—I think the way of Jesus is to engage on a fully human level, a very interpersonal level. It isn't all about the differences that we have with one another or the things that we don't like, or recognizing how somebody else is not following the ways of Jesus and the way that you think they should be. It's caring for them compassionately in the same way that Jesus cared for us when we weren't following the ways of Jesus. Or when on a daily basis, we don't follow the way of Jesus. His grace is always there for us, and we encounter that in a wide variety of ways.
But I think when people can encounter that sort of love and care and compassion in us, first and foremost, it's an opening, especially in a time when people expect something different from the church, that sort of antagonistic judgmentalism, being known for what they're against. But that way I talked before—Jesus as the quintessential Man for others—if He lives in us, then we are people for others. There's a way when we approach other people, and we live in a manner that maybe forgoes making those sorts of judgments or speaking in a way where the Law is in the forefront in terms of our first interactions. It creates an opening for people to see and experience this Jesus that lives in us differently.
God will do His work. I don't have to, I think, worry about that. I think what I'm really called to do is try to live as Jesus would to them. And the way of Jesus isn't always rubbing their sins in their face and a really aggressive sort of approach, but He's been gentle with all of us. And so if He's been gentle with me, that's a model for our approach to everyone else.
Mike Zeigler: Why is forgiveness so central to Christian character, and how is this different than just being nice?
Chad Lakies: Yeah, again, I think it has to do with entirely with the way God has come to us. He gave His life while we were still His enemies, right? (That's) from Romans 5. And that particular passage is just so on my mind constantly, and I quote it and I cite it everywhere, but it's so meaningful to me to remember Christ's posture toward us. We were the ones that He could have decided, "No, no, they're too bad. They're too sinful. I can't." The relationship is going to be prevented by all of those barriers." But instead, He did it despite all of those things.
And so, if His approach to me has been that way, to all of us has been that way, while we were still His enemies, well then, especially to outsiders, a forgiving attitude, but also to insiders. And maybe in a significant and deeper way, right? Because when it's with insiders, with fellow followers of Jesus, we're working with people who ostensibly should have known better at times when they've hurt us or they've violated some boundary, that attitude of forgiveness. Matthew 18, I mean, He calls Peter to forgive infinitely, right? It isn't a limit, how many times. Seven times? No, Jesus says 70 times 7 or 77 times, however it's translated. The idea is, it's an endless amount and God's forgiveness for us is limitless.
It is extravagant in its limitlessness. That's just unplumbable. I cannot comprehend that. Why does God keep putting up with me? But that's also a prompt, right? It prods us on to endure and forgive others constantly in that way and to live with a posture of forgiveness because that's God's posture toward us.
Mike Zeigler: Well, I think it's so much deeper than just being nice because niceness is surface level. It doesn't get at the real harm that's done, that we do, and that is done to us. And forgiveness addresses that head on but chooses to respond in the manner as God has done for us through Jesus and not in the normal way.
Chad Lakies: Yeah. A good example, and I think you're going to talk about this in the closing, but one of the Bible studies that we've done at LHM that I was privileged to host, we talked about forgiveness. And I said one of the things there that's important to remember is when someone apologizes not to say something like, "It's okay" or "No worries" or "Don't worry about it," or in any way sort of dismiss that apology, right?
Mike Zeigler: That's just nice.
Chad Lakies: It's kind of letting someone off the hook. That's nice. And I think that's what we feel like we have to do in our society, because it's just a habit of speaking. But it isn't a Christian habit of speaking. A Christian habit would be to recognize that someone has just confessed a sin. They've asked for forgiveness by apologizing. They might not have used exactly perfect Christian words, but we can use them a little more appropriately in response, and we can say, "I forgive you," because it fully recognizes that they're owning the fact that they've hurt you or crossed some sort of boundary, and they're trying to make amends with those words. And then we could speak good words back, words of release, and that can always be a set of words that's readily at hand, always on our lips.
Mike Zeigler: So that Bible study that Chad mentioned, you can find it. Just search online for "Lutheran Hour Ministries—Forgiveness," and you'll find it under the Nurturing Your Faith series of Bible studies that we have. Chad's also writing a new booklet on forgiveness. It'll be available soon. Thank you for that. Thanks for being with us today.
Chad Lakies: Thanks for having me, Mike.
Music Selections for this program:
"A Mighty Fortress" arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
"Crucifer" by Sydney H. Nicholson, arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
"Let All Together Praise Our God" From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.
