Friday; June 4

I believe that one of the greatest challenges of Christianity is not being good enough. I think that, intellectually, we all know that we aren’t perfect, but when it comes to doing good deeds it is difficult to accept the fact that we can’t do it all. I know a lot of people who do a lot of good things, but they still struggle with the fact that they can’t help all the homeless, feed all the poor or save all the sinners. They invest so much into their efforts that, rather than seeing the good that they do, they focus on the failures. They just never feel accomplished.

As I was thinking about this, I was reminded of a passage of Scripture that observers, “… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). I have been familiar with this passage for a long time and have often used it as a theological reality of the sinfulness of man, but I believe it speaks to many of us who just feel like we can’t do enough. Sure, we know that we fall short of perfection – we are sinful creatures – but I also got to thinking that it might remind us of the fact that we aren’t going to always accomplish all the good we want to do or even what we expect from ourselves. We need to try, but the reality is we are never going to be perfect.

While this can provide us with a sadness associated with sin, I believe it is a reminder that God loves us – shortcomings and all. If He is willing to forgive us when we sin, He is also willing to love us when we don’t accomplish all we want to accomplish. We are still His children when we try and “fall short”.

Are we wrestling with the guilt of not being perfect? Let’s do the best we can and rely on the grace of God to fill the void when we fall short – not only of what He expects from us, but from what we expect from ourselves.

Think About It!

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