I’m a good Christian about 72% of the time. My goal is to improve and be a good Christian 100% of the time, but I’m not there. The truth is, in this life I will never arrive at that 100%. I am flawed and sinful.
Part of my dilemma is that I drive a car. If I could give up driving, I think I would be a good Christian 80% of the time. I’m still praying for the dufus who pulled out in front of me the other day.
I slammed on the brakes which threw my bakery assignment on the floor of the car upside down. I was returning from securing bakery products for my wife. Do you know what happens to baked goods that are thrown to the floor of the car and inverted in a sudden stop? I was frosted about the messed up frosting. Dufus!
Maybe I was being too generous with my percentage of being a good Christian. There are times that I feel unqualified for this Christian life. I want to do better so Jesus will love me more. I am that guy who cleaned the house before the housekeeper came. I mow part of the yard the yard people are going to mow. I want to fix myself for Jesus. I want to be good God material. I want Jesus to look down and see me behaving as His child all the time, not 72% of the time. That way Jesus will love me more, right?
Some believe that you need to keep the rules to curry divine favor. Problem is I find these people always adding rules to the being-a-good-Christian-by-following-the-rules rule book.
Here is something for you to ponder. Until we admit we are a mess Jesus won’t have anything to do with us. Once we admit how unlovely we are, how broken we are, or how messed up and lost we are Jesus shows up unexpectedly.
According to the New Testament, Jesus is attracted to the unattractive. He came for lost ones not found ones. Jesus chose the losers over the winners. He picked the broken over the whole and the messy instead of the unmessy. He picked the blind, the crippled, the lepers, the demon possessed, the poor, the sick and the sinner and He called them friends.
Eugene Peterson said, “When we sin and mess up our lives, we find that God doesn’t go off and leave us—he enters into our trouble and saves us.”
As a 72 percenter, His grace is my only hope.
