I've been hearing through the grapevine that I'm not perfect. This comes as no surprise to me, and should not come as a surprise to anyone who's read what I've been writing these past few years either. There are many who mistakenly assume that being a Christian is about being free of any faults whatsoever, and about self-righteously lecturing others about the difference between right and wrong. To me, that is a recipe for failure, because everyone already knows in their hearts that some of the things they do are wrong. We just don't know HOW wrong such misdeeds are, until the day finally comes when we reap what we've sown.
So what is Christianity really about then? To me, it is about getting an "A for effort". Christ spoke in no uncertain terms to his own followers two millennia ago. He told them (and us) that we should "make to [our]selves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when [we] fail, they may receive [us] into everlasting habitations." The key part of that passage to me is that our failure in this world is not a question of "if", but rather "when". Countless self-help books out there promise to teach you how to succeed at life, but the Gospel is the only book that will tell you the truth: that material success in this world is only transitory, and that you and I WILL completely fail at life at some point. That much is an inevitability.
So why not prepare for that day in advance, instead of trying to fool yourself into thinking that your good fortune will last forever? If the day will come when you will be cast away by society like so much rubbish, why not use your temporary fame to establish good will with others, and more importantly, with the Powers that Be? At the cost of temporary inconvenience, you've made friends who will put in a good word for you on that fateful day when you are sheepishly waiting at the pearly gates. Is that not an investment worth making?
Again, I say all of this with the knowledge that I'm telling people what they already know deep down inside. These public teachings are two thousand years old, and the human condition has changed only marginally between then and now. So I share them only as a reminder to all, and as a means of encouragement. We will each of us play the fool at some point, if we haven't already. And when that day comes -- when we fail -- it is my personal hope that each of us will have done enough during our ever-so-brief time in the Sun to justify the divine mercy we will be begging for.
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