The Upside-of-Down.
The most common response to failure, and more particularly, sin, is a resolve driven by guilt to “fix” or somehow “manage” my sin. Deep inside, there exists a desire to get past that point where I won’t have to say “sorry” anymore and ask for forgiveness. Deep inside, there exists a desire to move past grace into self-sustenance and self-sufficiency. It’s here that we see how the original sin pervades EVERY SINGLE part of our lives. My PRIDE does not allow me to remain a failure. After all, no one wants to be a failure.
In keeping with this degenerative routine, we miss the whole point of it all. We must understand that there exists an upside to “down”. Attempts to clamor back to our feet and find joy in anything other than God only leads Him to bring us back down into the all-too-familiar pit of failure and remorse that we despise. After making countless trips to and fro from this pit, I’ve come to realize that the lesson to be learned is not some new way to fix and manage my sin, or just somehow become a little bit better than a failure, but rather, in my failure, stay there and realize first that I AM a failure and that I need grace.
I find this to be a different take on the gospel than the conventional “YOU’RE A SINNER! YOU NEED JESUS!” message. It is a very subtle difference, but I find that the conventional message usually just causes the listener to drown in a sea of guilt and self-condemnation. Instead, as I found out the hard way, I find that it makes all the difference when you get to the heart and root of our sin (and sinful tendencies). Exposing the obvious signs and sins (plural), as aforementioned, only leads to attempts at self-repair. But when you expose that even that is sinful, and that Jesus wants us to remain in our failure and know full well that we are failures and nothing without Him, I think it’s then that we can appreciate the Cross and his grace that much more. It is then that the Gospel becomes relevant. It is then that He becomes everything.
tl;dr
You’re going to sin and fail. So instead of constantly trying to convince yourself and others that you’re not, come to a humble understanding that you are a failure and that we need Jesus. All. The. Time. He is our Sustainer and Savior.
(copyright AK)
