Let's be really honest here. As hard as we try, living up to the perfect standard of Christ is something we fall short of everyday. And when we do miss the mark, it can become awfully discouraging. Many times, I've become exhausted from this cycle and wondered if it's even worth trying again. So, is there hope yet for a Christian who keeps failing at doing their best?
Before I get to telling you what my goal in this article is, I should begin by telling you what it isn't. This isn't an article to encourage you to try your hardest not to make mistakes: any man with the slightest idea of morality could tell you that. That is not my message. Because even with the knowledge that we are to strive for perfection (as compared to someone who did not know), we will fail all the same. My wish is not to tell you that you've done wrong, but to give you hope after you have. I wish to show you where to go next, how to recover when you've missed the target of perfection.
I've been reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and found, in the words of Lewis himself, exactly the answer I had been searching for. Once again, I wondered, is there hope yet for the most imperfect of imperfect Christians? Perhaps so.
Lewis wrote, "After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again... this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection."
There it was - my answer. Indeed, it is discouraging when you wish to please God and somehow manage to do exactly the opposite, but we don't give up here. If we aim to do well in school, yet do poorly on an exam, we do not give up quite yet. You press on and keep trying.
It is the trying again that matters. It is understanding that you have tried to do things on your own and it simply isn't working. It is returning to God after straying away. So, don't give up and never stop trying. There is hope for The Sinner yet.
