Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Tough being good

Am I "good" enough? I think people ask this question a lot. Especially when believing that its important to be a good person and try hard to lead a life worthy of God or others.

For a while, when I heard another person say, "I just need to be a good person (in contrast to being a Christian)." I felt personally attacked and had an agenda to convince the other that they weren't good enough and needed God. Like I had the immediate answer to all of their problems...

Yesterday and this morning I started thinking about this a little more. In my life (even after coming to faith) I put pressure on myself to be good. This brings self doubt, worry, anxiety, fear, insecurity, pride...

I realized that part of the message that I hope to embody is freedom from having to live up to our own expectations of what it means to be good and having to do that on our own.

We will always let ourselves down, without help.

A big part of the good news is that when we enter the Christian faith we enter a community of people who are working together to bring about a new way of life that is freeing... this means not having to put so much pressure on ourselves, alone... this means seeking after and asking for supernatural hope and strength when our human desires are no where close to "good"... resting in new possibilities for our lives that seem impossible when we are trying to be "good"...

5 comments:

Jon said...

you're probably better than me, for what it's worth.

traci said...

I should clarify that I wasn't asking this as "am I good enough?" But I really started thinking after having a conversation with a friend that its impossible to be good enough... so any time we compare ourselves to others we are missing the point.

I don't think I can be "better" than you, for what its worth.

Shannon Smith said...

I know Jon. You're "better" than him.

Jon said...

yeah, what are you talking about Traci? just admit you're better than me, Shannon and I agree.

traci said...

can't do it