Bringing Home That “F” on the Report Card

            It is not a very exciting thing to come home from school needing to have your parents sign off on a report card with one or more “F” grades.  A child in that circumstance may have parents who are stern and the child just knows that punishment is coming.  Or, the parents may be mostly indifferent and uncaring about the scholastic progress of their offspring.  Neither scenario builds up the child.

            In a similar way, as adults, we sometimes feel that we receive and “F” grade in an aspect of our life.  And dependent upon our view of God, we may expect Him to be stern and to expect that some type of punishment is forthcoming, or, that God is distant, uninvolved in today’s world, and that He is uncaring about the maturing process in our lives.

            These thoughts came to me a couple of days ago as I realized that many of us have four “F’s” that remain part of our lives as an adult…and there is an ongoing process to deal with them as we (hopefully) mature.

            Our faults.  When we compare ourselves with others or with “ideal” standards, our faults can jump out at us.  I don’t speak publicly as well as so-and-so, I’m not at the weight I want to be, I haven’t achieved the career level I expected, I can get intense too easily, I don’t confront well, I get lazy and don’t follow through, I’m not gracious when people upset me…there are so many areas where we can put ourselves down.

This is one of Satan’s favorite ploys, to point out our faults and see our self-image suffer.  God doesn’t want us to ignore our faults, He wants us to work on them with maturity, but He also wants us to recognize that we are part of His creation and that we are loved as His children.

Our fears.  What if I make a mistake, what if they don’t like me, what if I make a fool of myself, what if I try to pull off this project and it doesn’t happen, what if I take a leadership role and nobody follows my lead, what if I end up disabled, what if I have a stroke or come down with Alzheimer’s Disease, what if the plane crashes, what if…what if…what if?

Again, Satan wants to take our eyes off of God, so he plays on our fears, magnifies our fears, entices us to obsess on our fears.  That both takes time away from focusing on things of God, but it’s also evidence that we distrust God.  These two passages from Isaiah help to place our fears in proper perspective:

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (41:10)

Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.   When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.  (43:1a & 2)

Our Foibles.  These are things about our personality or temperament or habits that aren’t necessarily wrong or sinful or evil…and yet they can have a negative impact on our lives if we allow them.  We may be task driven to the detriment of relationships or so people focused that we seldom finish anything on time.  We may want to have everything in perfect order, or we may see neatness as a sign of a sick mind.  We may analyze things to the nth degree, fearful of making wrong decisions, or we may tend towards snap decisions without considering consequences.  We could be inflexible slaves to the clock, or we could operate with little respect for time or how important it is to other people.  We may be quiet, thoughtful, and reflective or we may easily meet anyone and have them feeling as though they are your best friend within five minutes. 

There are two challenges here.  The first is to not allow our natural “bent” in a certain direction to become overarching or consuming.  The second is to not allow feelings of insecurity to take root (I wish that I could be as decisive as…, I never get to church on time, if only I were more outgoing, etc.)  The way to deal with the first challenge is to submit our uniquenesses to the influence of the Lord, and to the second challenge is to recognize that God did not create us all alike or to be automatons, but He allows us our individual foibles, both strengths and weaknesses, as part of His creation.  We are His creation; body, soul, and spirit.  As it says in the book of Psalms:

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.  You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.  Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  (Psalm 139)

Our failures.  Part of the reality of our world is that we fail.  Ever since man’s fall in the Garden of Eden, we fail.  Even after we’ve accepted Christ as our Lord, even after our eternity is secure, we fail.  Whether we are striving to live our lives for God, or we are unapologetically living our lives for ourselves, we fail.  We may be hell-raisers or Christians living a markedly carnal life or believers devoted to following Christ daily, we fail.

            We fail in all manner of ways, large and small.  The scale of our failure is not important.  (…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…) Romans 3:23.  I’ve heard more than once, “I can’t come to God; He won’t accept me with everything I’ve done in my life.”  I often ask them, “How many of their sins were yet in the future when Christ died on the cross to pay the price for their failures?”  The answer is, “All of them.”  The same is true of some Christians who’ve had failures and feel that God now won’t accept them…we may beat ourselves up, but Christ’s sacrifice is still sufficient.

            Again, this is a popular ploy of Satan.  He delights when we focus on ourselves, our failures, and our unworthiness instead of focusing on God.  Whenever we worry about our failures, instead of learning from them and seeking His strength to avoid them in the future, we are falling into the enemy’s traps.  God would want to see us…not indifferent to our failures…but contrite over them.  

Rather than being concerned about these “F’s” in our lives, this course called life is actually “pass or fail” with only one question: “Have you accepted my Son as your Lord?”  If you want to make sure of that right now, call 1-888-NEEDHIM.

Paul Neighbors