I may be the master of self-deception and not even know it. See, we can be wise, we can value all the right things, we can study and pray and serve and meditate… And then all of a sudden we realize we are just a big Shit. There is always something… Always something. And it builds up and builds up and BAM!! We suck again. I guess this is why grace is so important. This is what all the saints keep telling us… Without God we are nothing. We need him. It’s why so many of the mystics in one breath talk about union with God and in the next are saying, ”God save me” or “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
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Nathan Bettger | Oshkosh, WI 
Yup!
I know this feeling very very well!
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Just this morning I was reading Brennan Manning,
“there is no growth in Christ Jesus without some difficulty and fumbling. If we are going to keep on growing, we must keep on risking failure throughout our lives……the Christian with depth is the person who has failed and learned to live with his failure…What the world longs for from the Christian faith is the witness of men and women daring enough to be different, humble enough to make mistakes, wild enough to be burnt in the fire of love, real enough to make others see how unreal they are.”
I love you, son.
Mom
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i dont think you are a big shit. i love you.
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I am sure we are taught perfection is not obtainable due to our state of original sin. Our mind and our flesh are our corruptible plane. Christ died that we will not live in guilt and shame and that we are forgiven; it is writen by Christ’s stripes we are healed. What we must do is repent. We must confess our sin(s) look ourself in the eye in the mirror of the temple and see and admit what God sees and tells us what He sees; which is a sinner who is bound by law freed by sacrifice. It isn’t acting the fool that matters it is accepting God’s forgiveness and saying thank you by repenting; failing to repent isn’t at issue it is working at it and working at it God’s grace will prevail eventually if we repent with intent. When on the phone when I pay my state sales tax only do I get God’s ideal, about repentence: the typological message? Do not hang up! Your transaction is not complete until you are given your confirmation number.
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Chris,
Thanks for your thoughts. I’m not sure that the first thing God thinks of us is that we are a sinner. I am not the biggest proponent of the substitutionary atonement theory of the cross. There are lots of ideas about whether perfection is attainable… and for me, i don’t think our original sin is the thing that holds us back.
I tend to not divide mind, flesh, spirit into what is good and what is bad. I do agree though that the work of Christ has affected all history and all humanity for all time… in ways that we cannot even fathom.
Be well.
Nate
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Probably the best post I have ever seen
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This post couldn’t be more factual..
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