Humility as a Crooked Saint

The name may seem misleading, like I think I am a Saint but live a crooked life, but it is actually quite opposite. I have lived a life full of crooked paths and brokenness. God made me a Saint the day I became a Christian though I am still battle scarred and as I say, "Beautifully Broken". Beautifully broken like a broken lamp held together with glue, and the light inside shines beautifully through the cracks. This is how Jesus shines through in all our lives. The number one lesson I learned about becoming a Christian is humility. Often new Christians feel this need to be perfect, and in this perfection everyone around them who says they are Christians should be perfect too! What we often fail to realize is everyone is on a journey and in very different places in that journey with Christ.
Pride and Prejudice will get you nowhere as a Christian let me tell you. (Awesome book reference right there.) A humble heart and a transparent life God can mold and use to influence lives. I am not saying let your past define you as broken, but to remember where you have come from. Humbly accept your inequities. This is a direct path to our purpose.
None of us are perfect in any shape or form, and we would deceive ourselves to think otherwise. It's only through Christ perfection that I could ever call myself righteous. No matter how "righteously" I try to live, or perfect I try to be, without Christ I would always fall short. I thank God every day for His presence in my life. Without Him I would be a hot mess, that is for sure.
So, yes, I am a Saint, but bent by experience with a crooked past. I make sure to point all that has changed, all that has prospered, all that has propelled me forward and made me better towards Christ. He is the one who has done the hard work to put me right with God, all I have to do is make sure I obey the Holy Spirit's convictions and direction.
I hope and pray you realize your life, no matter how far off it had been in the past, can absolutely change the outcome in someone else's life. All you have to do is accept your faults and remind yourself God is working on you and through you. Continue to grow friends in the Light and Living Water of Jesus!
From one Crooked Saint to another,
Shevonne