Raising The Standard

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ne of the most challenging and rewarding courses I took was a class in French Phonetics.  Now I’m sure you are just sitting there with bated breath, eager to lap up every juicy morsel of French phonetics and its application to the speaking of that language!!!  However, it wasn’t the ins and outs of the phonetic alphabet and rules that grabbed my attention.  Instead, it was a statement made during the first day of class that impressed upon me the goal that all of us were striving to reach.

I took this class at Paul Valéry University in the city of Montpellier, located in southern France as part of my college’s study abroad program.  The very first day, the professor told us that in order to learn French (and she was talking to native speakers as well) we had to understand and grasp one concept. There is a language known as Standard French.  It is French in its purest form, the form everyone aims for and patterns themselves after.  Speakers of French attempt to conform their pronunciation and sentence structure to this standard.  Their success or deficiency in the language is judged by how closely their French mimics and conforms to that standard.

I determined to master the language and come as close as I could to conforming to that standard.  By the end of that year, I had learned French grammar and could maneuver quite proficiently in the language.  The statement the instructor made about that standard remained foremost in my mind all during the year.  It became my one goal, my one desire, and my one passion during that year abroad.  I went to France to learn French and that is exactly what I did.

The Christian life also has its standard against which we are to be measured.  This standard is none other than Jesus Christ himself.  If you’ve ever wondered why trials and temptations come your way, if you ‘ve feel as if the difficulties you are experiencing have couldn’t possible work out to your benefit, then listen to the following words from Paul’s letter to the Romans.  In Romans 8:29 he writes, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

If you’ll look very carefully you will see God’s standard, his reason for allowing trials and challenges to come our way. He is conforming us to the image of Jesus.  Every aspect of our lives, our thoughts, our words, our deeds, our actions, and our motivations must be measured against the standard of Jesus Christ.  God wants us to be complete, lacking in nothing and he will use every means at his disposal to ensure we reflect the image of Jesus Christ.   That is how much he loves you and me.

The instructor in France taught me a valuable lesson.  Unless I gauged my French against the standard, I would never know how far off the mark I was nor how far I had to go to improve.  In the same way, God is busy conforming us to the image of Christ.  He carefully compares us to the perfect image of his son.  He then begins pinching, pulling, pushing, and cutting at us until we begin to take on the exact image of Christ.  He is our standard; the one true goal we must try to attain.  So, the next time you face a difficult trial, just remember that God is raising the standard, making you conform to the perfect image of Christ Jesus.