Reason #99
"I went to church with my aunt when I was growing up. She was a Sunday School teacher, but I have my own religion and my own beliefs which is just be righteous and walk a righetous path. I believe basically all religions break down to are you a good person or a bad person." - Ice T
I have been a bum today. After a stressful week of late nights and early mornings, I rewarded myself by sleeping until 11:30 and as of right now (4:00PM) I am still in my pj's. Sometimes it is nice to do nothing, to enjoy a day with no ageda. So I curled up in my chair with a bowl of cereal and my sweet Scout and we watched TV for a while.
I've really cut down on my TV time, but I always enjoy a good, mindless reality show. Easy entertainment. I realize I should probably challenge myself with something more thought provoking, but the truth is, I enjoy watching other peoples' lives. Don't we all? After all, who doesn't enjoy starting at the magazine covers when standing in line at the grocery store?
So as I watched TV, a reality show came on called "Ice Loves Coco." I'm not going to go into much detail about the show, as I've only seen a handful of episodes, but as I watched the first few minutes, Ice T (a rapper who is now an actor on Law & Order) made the above comment concerning his faith. And my heart broke as I heard him utter these words and I realized how many people (mostly women if I was betting) are watching this show and maybe nodding their head in agreement with his thoughts. How discouraging it must be to feel this way. Maybe a little hopeless too...
Isn't this what we hear over and over? Isn't this what we tell ourselves? If we act in a way that we consider righteous, surely, that must mean we're doing things right. If we are a "good person" more often than a "bad person" that must count for something.
And sometimes I try so hard. I try to do the right thing, make the right decisions, be a "good" person. I want to be known as one who is of upstanding character and morals. But He reminded me that,"There is no one righteous, not even one..." (Romans 3:10). And I realize that I'm never going to be "good" enough no matter how hard I try.
I'll be honest, I struggle with this. It doesn't make sense that God would send his only Son for sinners. For messed up people who keep on making bad decisions. For broken people who are so off track they don't even know it. For stumblers who fall down again and again. For people who deliberately and knowingly go against Him. But He did. "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:6-8) And sometimes, I get prideful and I start to forget that. I start to think about how "good" I've tried to be. I suppose I get a little arrogant thinking that I deserve this forgiveness and grace because I feel like I do a pretty good job of doing the right thing. But He reminded me, "For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:13).
So I kind of see how Ice T could get things mixed up. It seems to make sense that God would want to save the good people. The righteous ones. The perfect ones. The things is, they don't exist.
And so I praise Him that He mixed things up, did it differently that I would have. I am so glad that He came for this sinner. For this imperfect girl who forgets and trips over her own feet all the time. I'm thankful that because I, "[trust] God who justifies the ungodly, [my] faith is credited as righteousness." (Romans 4:5) It's that confusingly simple. Credit for trusting. Righteousness for believing. I'm so glad it's not credited to me based solely on my behavior, my thoughts, my cirucmstances, my attitude.
And I'm glad it's the same for all of us...
#99 - Because it has been credited to me as righteousness.
"...but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." - Romans 4:24-25
I have been a bum today. After a stressful week of late nights and early mornings, I rewarded myself by sleeping until 11:30 and as of right now (4:00PM) I am still in my pj's. Sometimes it is nice to do nothing, to enjoy a day with no ageda. So I curled up in my chair with a bowl of cereal and my sweet Scout and we watched TV for a while.
I've really cut down on my TV time, but I always enjoy a good, mindless reality show. Easy entertainment. I realize I should probably challenge myself with something more thought provoking, but the truth is, I enjoy watching other peoples' lives. Don't we all? After all, who doesn't enjoy starting at the magazine covers when standing in line at the grocery store?
So as I watched TV, a reality show came on called "Ice Loves Coco." I'm not going to go into much detail about the show, as I've only seen a handful of episodes, but as I watched the first few minutes, Ice T (a rapper who is now an actor on Law & Order) made the above comment concerning his faith. And my heart broke as I heard him utter these words and I realized how many people (mostly women if I was betting) are watching this show and maybe nodding their head in agreement with his thoughts. How discouraging it must be to feel this way. Maybe a little hopeless too...
Isn't this what we hear over and over? Isn't this what we tell ourselves? If we act in a way that we consider righteous, surely, that must mean we're doing things right. If we are a "good person" more often than a "bad person" that must count for something.
And sometimes I try so hard. I try to do the right thing, make the right decisions, be a "good" person. I want to be known as one who is of upstanding character and morals. But He reminded me that,"There is no one righteous, not even one..." (Romans 3:10). And I realize that I'm never going to be "good" enough no matter how hard I try.
I'll be honest, I struggle with this. It doesn't make sense that God would send his only Son for sinners. For messed up people who keep on making bad decisions. For broken people who are so off track they don't even know it. For stumblers who fall down again and again. For people who deliberately and knowingly go against Him. But He did. "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:6-8) And sometimes, I get prideful and I start to forget that. I start to think about how "good" I've tried to be. I suppose I get a little arrogant thinking that I deserve this forgiveness and grace because I feel like I do a pretty good job of doing the right thing. But He reminded me, "For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:13).
So I kind of see how Ice T could get things mixed up. It seems to make sense that God would want to save the good people. The righteous ones. The perfect ones. The things is, they don't exist.
And so I praise Him that He mixed things up, did it differently that I would have. I am so glad that He came for this sinner. For this imperfect girl who forgets and trips over her own feet all the time. I'm thankful that because I, "[trust] God who justifies the ungodly, [my] faith is credited as righteousness." (Romans 4:5) It's that confusingly simple. Credit for trusting. Righteousness for believing. I'm so glad it's not credited to me based solely on my behavior, my thoughts, my cirucmstances, my attitude.
And I'm glad it's the same for all of us...
#99 - Because it has been credited to me as righteousness.
"...but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." - Romans 4:24-25