False Advertising: I'm Better Than You

How do I compare to super pious Christians?  Are they better than I am?

 

No!  We are all equal in God's eyes!  All of us are sinners and in need of God.  There are no favorites!

Okay.  Great.

 

But your ad here says that might not be true?  The way I hear things from Christians, I'm not as good as those who don't struggle with anything or those who have been saved much longer than I have.  I'm not as good as those who are Sunday school teachers or deacons or elders.  I don't offer a lot of money, and I'm not on any committees.  I'm not as good as the people who are visibly and clearly going above and beyond.

 

So what's the deal--are super religious Christians better than everyone else or not?

 

~~

 

76 to pass.  That was all anyone needed to become a nurse at my school.  It didn't matter if you failed one test but passed all of the others--

 

76.  That was all you needed.

 

Me?  I wanted better than that.  I pushed myself because "just enough" wasn't just enough for me.  I wanted to graduate at the top of my class.  I wanted all As! Summa cum laude!

And even though I worked my tail off--working on 20-page care plans on Friday nights, waking up at 5:00 am to go to clinicals, memorizing every side effect of every drug that ever existed--I received my diploma no differently from those who squeaked by with a 76.

 

And today?  No one I take care of knows what I made on my Pharmacology tests.  They don't know if I aced all of Health Assessment or if I bombed a few quizzes or tests.

 

Because it doesn't matter.  I met the requirement of what I needed to, and because of that, I am an RN.

 

Was it fair that I spent all of my free time working toward the As when others partied all night and escaped with Cs?

 

Aiming higher for my own personal sense of accomplishment was my choice.  No one asked anything further of me.  But there were times I resented those who got by.

 

And when it comes to matters of the faith, is it true that we do the same?

 

If we take the Bible for what it says--if it's really about what we believe and not what we do--then we have no choice but to believe that a person can live his life with total disregard for the Lord and then make a commitment of faith on his death bed and go to heaven.

 

And those of us who spend our whole lives being "good"--yes, those of us who say we hope everyone will be reached with the good news of salvation--don't we resent a little bit the people who get by with that last-minute profession of faith?

 

Don't we resent the people who don't try so hard?  Who slack off and take full advantage of grace?

 

Boy, do I ever--and admittedly, that's a sour attitude to have.

 

Do you ever feel that way, too?

 

How?  you may ask.  How does God give the same reward to people who give such varying degrees of effort?  How could He give equal benefit to such unequal lives?

 

Consider that you long to have a child for the first time.  Perhaps it is difficult to conceive, and you have to undergo fertility treatments--drugs, IUI, IVF.  Perhaps you need a surrogate or to adopt.  Perhaps your baby comes early because of complications.  Perhaps everything goes normally until the very end, when your delivery doesn't go exactly as you had planned.

 

And then.

 

Then.

 

The time comes when you hold that precious baby in your arms for the first time.  She smells of that newborn smell.  She coos her soft coos.  She smiles as she drifts off to sleep.  She grabs your finger tightly in the palm of her hand.

 

And things feel so complete.

 

At that moment, is your first thought Boy, I wish you'd found some other way of getting here.

 

Or rather, However you got here, I'm just glad you're here.

 

I don't at all mean to gloss over the truth here, in that God plainly calls His children to live lives set to a higher standard, to aim for blamelessness, to be kind and compassionate and forgiving and full of grace.  In no way do I mean to encourage slacking off in a relationship with God or taking advantage of His marvelous gift of grace.

 

If anything, I hope to give your heart pause for consideration when comparison comes to steal your joy.

 

You aren't better.  They aren't worse.

 

And at the end of this life, you may be standing beside one another in heaven.

 

And being in heaven at all means you've all met the requirement of what He's asked of you.

 

Grace is the great equalizer.

 

Have you ever (secretly, of course!) hoped that some people won't make it into heaven because--as you saw it--they just didn't deserve it like you do?

 

I'll go first--I've absolutely had thoughts like that!  Not necessarily that I would ever condemn someone to hell (okay, okay, maybe on my WORST day), but maybe just not prayed as hard for them?

 

Do you ever think that? Being completely honest with yourself--are there people you'd be disappointed to see in heaven because it would reflect a truly warped sense of all that is good and holy?!

 

This topic comes up regularly with me and Brooks whenever one of us has to deal with frustrating relationships, and one night he provided me with a pearl of wisdom.

 

"What if," he began, "when we get to heaven someday...we're enjoying to the fullest all that God has to offer.  It's wonderful and beautiful and perfect.  And then...what if we witness those people we struggle with make it to the gates of heaven.  What if they make it and we see the looks on their faces when they finally understand it all.  Would it not be more rewarding to us to see them get to heaven and say, 'We had no idea.  We had no idea what we were doing, and you prayed for us anyway.'  Wouldn't that be an infinitely better reward than seeing them suffer?"

 

I softened and pondered deeply.

 

I saw his point, and it broke a barrier within me.

 

God isn't rooting for me to win and anyone else to lose.

 

He's rooting for all of us.

 

Like the Tortoise and the Hare, I've blown past what I've deemed unworthy opponents with my sights set on a finish line.

 

And what I would never expect are dark horses creeping along, making mistakes but pushing through.

 

There isn't meant to be a winner.  We can take it slow, we can take it quickly.  We can make all As or just a 76.

 

We can make mistakes and keep going.

 

And in the end, there's a finish line that He's hoping we will cross.

 

First?  Last?  Perfect or not?  Who cares!

There is no better, no worse, no point in drawing a comparison.  It never really mattered anyway.

 

For however you got here.  However.

 

He's just glad you're here at all.