Two men

Remember Saturday morning cartoons, back in the days before cable and Nickelodeon? We'd get up so early that the off-air screen was still showing (that was before 24-hour broadcasting too). One staple plot line of a lot of episodes was the evil twin who showed up and caused all kind of havoc. That was such a common theme that in high school we would claim, "That was my evil twin Skippy."

Reading 1 Cor 15:45-49 this morning, I though of those old episodes. In these verses Paul describes the two men who shaped our spiritual journey: Adam, the earthly man, and Jesus, the man from heaven. "And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven," Paul's says (v49).

Paul points out that earthly people are like Adam, and heavenly people are like Jesus. Our hope is that one day, as citizens of heaven, we will be like our Savior.

There are two sides to my nature. There's the earthly side, attracted to the comforts of this world, attracted by the temptations of fleshly living. That's the guy who doesn't always like to go to work, who enjoys popular books and movies, who sometimes wonders, "What if they're right? What if there is no God?"

Then there's the side of me that looks at the clouds and thinks of the Creator, who looks at my wife and thinks of the church, the bride of Christ. That Greg finds beauty in the Gospel and joy in toiling in the Master's fields.

The problem is, I don't think I have an evil twin. More like I have a good twin out there, a better, more holy man who shows up fewer days than I wish he would. Like Paul said somewhere else, too often I do the evil that I hate, and can't seem to do the good I long to do.

It's a good thing it isn't up to me, isn't it. I need to keep trying, but Jesus did and will continue to do the work. I just need to keep my hope in him and put in honest effort. That's comforting.