26 Jun How Good is “Good Enough” for God?
WE ARE PERFECTLY SUITED TO GIVE GOD EXACTLY WHAT HE WANTS
Gary Paulsen is a Minnesotan who, having never run a dog sled race and with only 150 training miles with his dog team in the familiar Minnesota woods, ran the Iditarod dog sled race, 1200 miles from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska, in the dead of winter.
In a fit on naiveté bordering on insanity, brought on after some amateur sledding one day, Paulsen decided to enter the race on a course, which, he would learn later, would try to kill him several times. He bought a sled-dog team and immediately started endurance training, and the first day turned out to be a microcosm of his entire sledding career. Had he known that, he might have quit right then. When all the dogs were hitched to the sled, barking wildly and lunging eagerly into their harnesses, he went to the rig, stood by it, waved to his wife who was watching by the door of the house, and jerked the rope that was holding the sled to a tree. The dogs exploded. He wrote:
I don’t think the rig hit the ground more than twice all the way across the yard. My [word], I thought, they’ve learned how to fly. With me hanging out the back like a tattered flag, we came to the end of the driveway, where we would have to turn onto the road.
The dogs made the turn fine. The rig started to turn as well, but I had forgotten to lean into the corner, and it rolled over. We set off along the road with the rig upside down, and me dragging in the gravel on my face.
It took me four miles to get the rig up on its wheels, by which time the handlebar was broken off and I had nothing to hang on to but the steering ropes.
We did the 30-mile [training run] in just under two and a half hours, and never once was I in anything like even partial control of the situation. (“The Last Great Race,” Reader’s Digest, March, 1994, pp 299-301).
Paulsen never gave up, however. He ran the two-week-long Iditarod race, and finished! When he crossed the finish line, a reporter asked him if he had anything to say. He said, “I’m coming back next year and winning.”
He did come back the next year. But he didn’t win. He has since wisely retired, and lives as a writer in New Mexico, when he’s not on his sailboat.
Paulsen never won the race he said he would win. Was he a failure because of that? When we don’t live up to hopes or expectations, we are often left with a nagging sense of failure.
So the big question is, in running the race of life, does God think we’re a failure if we don’t succeed in everything we try? Is He disappointed with us? How good is “good enough” for God?
1. For Heaven, You’re Already Good Enough for God
Heaven is a perfect place… and nothing will ever be let into it that is not perfect. So what hope is there for us?!?
God makes us perfect in Christ. When we repent of our sin, believe in Jesus, and receive Him as our savior… our sins are placed on Christ, and Christ’s righteousness is placed on us (2 Corinthians 5:21).
We are, the Bible says, born again spiritually (John 3:16). Our old self dies, and we are spiritually resurrected to new life (Romans 6:5). Our “new self” is holy and righteous. Ephesians 4:24 says, “put on the new self, which in the likeness of God, has been created in true righteousness and holiness.”
As a result, Romans 8:1 says, “There is now, therefore, no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” We are ready for heaven.
So, for heaven, Christians are already good enough for God.
2. For Earth, God Wants Only Our Best
God is a God of excellence… and His children are to be committed to excellence. This means that we must do things as well as we can.
Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your heart.”
Having said that, there are three counter-balancing truths:
- God does not expect us to better than we can, and if we continuously try, we end up with an ulcer.
- God does not compare us to someone else who may be gifted by God to do more or less than we can.
- God understands when our best may be marginalized by time, money, circumstances, or something else. God knows. He only holds us accountable for that which He has made possible for us to do.
God doesn’t want more or less than He has made possible for us to do. We are perfectly suited to give God exactly what He wants.
- For Eternity, God Produces the Results and Rewards Our Faithfulness
God doesn’t ask us to be successful. He just asks us to be faithful. He produces all results.
In 1 Corinthians 3:6-7, we read, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.
One person may be marvelously gifted while another is modestly gifted. In the eyes of people, one may produce amazing results while the other produces meager results. But both can be equally faithful to what God has asked them to do.
The one with marvelous gifts may be 100% faithful to what God asks of him and the one with modest gifts may be 100% faithful. If so, God is equally pleased with both and rewards them both in heaven. Faithfulness, not results, is the issue on earth (Matthew 25:14-26).
So, how good do we have to be to be “good enough” for God? In Christ, we are already good enough for God. If we simply realize it and are faithful to Him, we can bask in the awareness of God’s present pleasure and future reward.
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