PALS WITH THE BIG G PART 8: Failure

So I suppose I'm pretty bad at keeping up with this blog assignment on a day-to-day basis. Looking at it metaphorically, I guess it could be said that this blog is a reflection of life- hopes and ambitions are there, but life gets in the way of making those happen. But that's why we need God- to give us the drive and the encouragement to keep going.




Today was pretty bad. I could point out instances where I fell pray to most, if not all, of the so-called "seven deadly sins" and for the most part, I walked right into those pitfalls, knowing what I was doing and not really caring. A lot of it was fueled by the thought, "I'm tired of fighting these feelings all the time."

But it's funny, every time I did something I would immediately regret it and wish I had taken a few minutes to just gather myself. There were even some instances where I did reflect on what I was doing, but then went ahead and acted badly anyway. Of course, in retrospect, I'm still sorry that I did those things, but I can also use them as a learning experience- and right now, those sins are serving as the inspiration for my writing.

People do terrible things all the time, for a variety of reasons. Some people take these courses of action because they feel there's no other way to obtain their goal. Some people do it because it's such an ingrained habit, they forget it's something they should be doing. Some people just don't care, or don't believe in God and thus don't believe they are sinning anyway.

Also, some people will own up to what and why they did what did, and some people will try to reason away their guilt. Or both. In the car insurance industry, it's said that any accident your client has is never their fault- they will always tell you there is always a reason for their lapse of control. Sin is the same way.

And that is why Jesus's sacrifice is so great and majestic and deep. His death covers all of humanity for all the sins they will ever make. Forever. Not matter the reason. And he did us this favor because he loves us- and all he asks in return is that we love him back by sharing that love with everyone else. That's really it. In one of my previous articles, I attempted to define what Jesus means when he says "love your neighbor", and I've gushed about the simplicity of the "greatest commandments," but all that really needs to be said in order to sum up Jesus' teachings is, "You need to love everyone regardless of their faults, and everyone needs to love you, too." When we love as Jesus loved us, we can forgive the sins that are done against us, and like wise when that love is returned to us, we are therefore forgiven our sins as well.

And like I said before, simple idea, seemingly impossible execution. But with God, we can do it.

To me, the most miraculous part of Jesus' suffering and death, is his reason for it. Because he loves us. Because he loves us even though we killed Him. It was not the Jews that killed Jesus- it was the whole of humanity. We killed him because we hated Him; because he asked us to deny ourselves and despite our vast intelligence and ability, we could not and can not understand this simple command. But when we killed him, he forgave us, and in doing so forgave all of our other sins; because what sin is greater than killing God?

On top of that, through Jesus' resurrection, we too are promised resurrection. To illustrate the situation in modern (and insurance!) terms- it's as if we got into a car accident with God, and even though it was totally our fault, Jesus paid for the repairs to our vehicles, and then decided he should buy us a brand new car on top of that. And the new car is anything you want. And all he asks in return is that if you ever get into another car accident again, to send the next guy over to Jesus as well, so they can get a new car, too.

It's taken me a long, long time to understand the depth, and the value, and the meaning of Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection, and really, this is only a small portion of my thoughts on the matter and I feel that if everyone understood what this sacrifice meant, we would stop looking for reasons to not believe and move humanity as a whole toward something better, despite our defects.