I was thinking the other day that it would be nice to get report cards from God. You know like we all got in grade school. He could list out different categories like our level of faith, patience, being nice to people, faithfulness, etc. and then a letter out to the side, S for Satisfactory, E for Excellent, I for the dreaded Needs Improvement. Then maybe a little note of encouragement at the bottom.
The first thing that I think this would do for us is let a little air out of our sails for those areas that we think we have licked. Lets face it, we all have them. "Did you see how humble I was there" or we those issues that we think we have licked, or at least hidden better where nobody can see them anymore.
Secondly, and I think much more importantly, is that I believe that we would find that the areas in our life that we are actively struggling in, the ones we know we are and are trying to find our way thought, that not only are we probably doing better than we would ever give ourselves credit for, but that God is much more pleased with us than we could imagine. We would find that He is pleased that we have acknowledge the area that needs work and that we are willing to working on it. That (hopefully) we know there is know way we can do it on our own and that we are trusting in him to get us through. And, that we are probably doing much better than we know or are able to believe. He has much more faith in us that we have in ourselves.
I think this report card thing might lead us astray though because that takes us away from grace so that we are not leaning on God but on our own abilities. I think this would lead to us being more self righteous. Mark Driscoll caught my attention when he said that the greatest scandal is that any of us will go to heaven. We all deserve Hell, but Christ has given us a free gift if we choose to accept it. I think we can get ourselves into trouble if we start thinking that we are ok and forget that the only way we can be ok is in and through Christ.
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