Do You Make Mistakes
But, “Let the one who boasts boast in
the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the
one whom the Lord commends.
– 2 Corinthians 10:17-18
When was the last time you made a mistake? When was
the last time you admitted you made a
mistake? We make mistakes all the time. We’re human, after all. But admitting
we’re the one at fault isn’t so easy.
I was at a meeting with a sweet friend. Before the
meeting ended, the group scheduled the time, date and place of the next
meeting. Somehow, she missed it. When it came time for the next meeting, she
was furious. The meeting was set for a time and day when she couldn’t attend.
She was convinced it was intentional.
She refused to acknowledge that she’d been present
when the new meeting was set. She refused to admit that maybe she’d messed up.
She was too busy making excuses to see that maybe she’d made a mistake.
I couldn’t understand the big deal. We all do it. We
zone out and miss something important. We make a mistake. We deal with the
consequences. There was nothing life shattering about it. Just admit it and go
on. She’s still pointing fingers.
What is it about us that makes us refuse to admit to
our very real humanness? Why do we expect perfection from ourselves and then
try to hide it when we fail? And we always fail. Always. Jesus was the only
perfect One who ever walked this earth.
We also expect perfection from others. We have no
sympathy for someone who fails to meet our standards. We don’t extend grace and
mercy. Our words are harsh, unforgiving, mean.
We tell ourselves it’s about standards. It’s really
about pride. Our pride. It’s all about us. And we can’t stand to be wrong,
questioned, or embarrassed.
We also don’t want to admit when anything bad happens.
We’re embarrassed. We don’t want anyone else to know we’re having financial
trouble, going through a divorce, have a child involved with drugs. We’d much
rather pretend that everything is all right, that we’re living that perfect,
American-dream life, than to admit we’re struggling.
Pride is a dangerous thing that keeps us from the very
ones who can hold us up when life tears us down. Pride wraps us in pretense, in
illusion, in a glass bubble that is destined to shatter. And for what reason?
So we can boast about being who we aren’t?
Our identity, our worth, comes from Christ. It’s not
about us. Really. It’s not. We’re going to make mistakes. Bad things are going
to happen. Hurtful things are going to shake us to our core. But we can put all
that in proper perspective when we realize we are not our mistakes or our
successes. Our value comes because we are children of God Almighty. When we
finally, truly, realize that, it shifts things around and puts them in their
proper place.
God knows we aren’t perfect. He knows we’re going to
mess up. He knows we’re going to fail. He knows others are going to hurt and
betray us. And He understands that we are like small children, hiding rather than
admitting we’ve done something wrong.
Grace, mercy and forgiveness come when we fall at the
foot of the cross. We don’t have to hang on to our mistakes or to hide them. We
can confess and watch the blood of Christ turn us whiter than snow. We can let
go of pride-fueled perfection and admit we need a Savior. We can be forgiven
and move on.
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