How cool is Pernell? (a rhetorical question)

Last week I was working on a sermon about how God doesn’t just forgive us, he also changes us. I got to thinking how we don’t always feel like we’re being changed when I came across this post by Pernell:

I Am No Better Than You…I am likely worse. Please keep that in mind as you read my blog. I am a mess. I am arrogant and stupid. I am selfish and pig-headed. I am confident, and yet a total chicken. I am opinionated and rude. I pretend to know stuff, and speak well “on my feet”… but I know very little, I just have the need to sound smart and together and right. I am lazy and forgetful. I am rarely the person I should be, or the person I really want to be, or the person Jesus created me to be. I am a miserable failure in many ways.

I knew that a lot of people would relate to these words. I know I do. Yet in a way I was taking issue with them, saying that even though we feel this way, God does change us. So, I thought this would be a good place to start off and talk about this issue. Pernell was cool enough to give me permission to use it even though he didn’t know what I would say. Also, it’s a little unfair to pick on someone who sounds a lot like  Paul did in Romans 7, which opens a whole other topic of discussion… I got to thinking today: how cool is Pernell to let me do this? He’s taught me a lot, and he’s involved in some pretty amazing stuff, and he even lets me use and abuse his blog posts. So thanks, Pernell. I take my hat off to you and bow my balding head in thanks.