I don’t now about you, but I find within myself a tremendous desire to do well. The problem for me though, is the quest to do well is a never-ending exercise in falling short. And if that’s not bad enough, the quest to do well is likely a quest for the approval of others.
Nick Lannon, writing at Liberate has provided a wonderful illustration I desperately need to remember. He relates the story of Olympic skater Jeremy Abbott taking a spectacular fall before millions of watching eyes, and then performing far better after the fall than before.
Mr. Lannon points out how freeing it is to realize that we are rescued from the outside. He writes,
“We, like Jeremy Abbott, have gone crashing to the ice too many times to keep telling ourselves that our quest for glory is ongoing. It’s over. We’ve failed. Also like Jeremy Abbott, though, we’re now free. We can live our lives without trying to fool anyone into thinking that we don’t need saving. We do, and desperately.”
Oh that I could take it completely to heart that I am approved not on the basis of how I well I do, but on the basis of what Christ has done on my behalf.
You can read the entire article here.
