I can be insufferable when I fix something or make something. There is just a great satisfaction in looking at your own handiwork and seeing it complete. I have long worked in areas where I never really know if what I have done matters. I mean, how do I really know my college students have learned anything? And for all of the clients I have ever had over these forty years, I have never really been sure if what I did helped them all that much.
This is why I have always loved gardening, mowing the lawn, fixing things and making things. I know when I have finished that it mattered. For a few days, I can look out across that lawn and see it looks just right. That is not true when the object of your work is other human beings. So what I have learned is that the accomplishment is doing a good job. Doing the job well has to be enough because I don’t get to see further than that.
Isn’t that the way of the Gospel? We live a life that expresses that Gospel, that Good News, but we never really know who sees us and who notices and who changes because of it. And, I think that is the way it is supposed to be. We live such a life because we are loved into it. Sound silly? Well, Easter was just a couple of days ago and that is our celebration of living again. Christ/God does not ask us to do anything but love. There are no other expectations from God but for us to live and love, just as we are.
I get it, that sounds simplistic. Aren’t we supposed to follow all the rules? No! Aren’t we all sinners and fall short? Yes and No!. Yes, we all have that propensity to go our own way. It is always a choice we make. The Devil doesn’t make us do it, we go our own way because we think we know what we are supposed to do. As of that first Easter, I no longer fall short. On the cross, Jesus said “tetelestai”, it is finished. And it is, finished. We no longer have to try to be good enough. We don’t even have to try, we just are good enough.
I know, it seems like we should do something to earn this, but that is simply not the Gospel. It is already accomplished in us, for us, by the Creator of all. The resurrection restored us to who we can be. And it is total empowerment, we get to choose each day. You see, it is enabling if we have to meet a set of standards to be called Christian. It is empowering when we realize God chose us because of our free will. So, let’s accept the accomplishment, believe that we are good enough, and bask in love.
TMM