The unfortunate art of perfectionism began in my heart as a child. I never liked making mistakes. And, although the sensitive heart of a child to wrongdoing is a good thing, lingering guilt sucked me into continued silent confessions. On the flip side, chapel sermons taught me that penance had already been paid. It’s part of the radical story of God—that the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience lead us to repentance. (Romans 2:4). Nonetheless, after confessing my sins, I often remained a guilt-carrier.
“Please forgive me for…” And then, came God’s gentle response: If I thought you could have gotten it right all of the time, I wouldn’t have had to send my Son to die. His tender words put a “knowing” within my heart, and a hike near the town of Westport in Ireland (see photo) illustrated it.
As I descended the mountain path (see video) of Craugh Patrick, I passed a man beginning his upward trek barefoot, as a physical act of penance. The difficulty of the steep, rocky path had required me to use hiking poles and strong boots for every difficult step. Where would I be if God required me to do penance for my offenses against Him? Physically, I’d still be on that trail. Spiritually, I’d be living a dull and defeated Christian life.
But God paid a great price to take the penance out of repentance so I can travel light. This humbles me and gives me confidence to trust as I anticipate every next threshold with Him.
The Treasure: “A life fully surrendered to God, has nothing to fear, nothing to lose, nothing to regret.” (Pandita Rumabai, India)
If you’d rather read than watch the video, here’s the full video transcript:
This is the trail up Craugh Patrick in Ireland. The rocky trail came all the way from where the water is. It’s been a rough journey up—lots of rocks as you can see in front of me. And the important thing has been to take one step at a time as you come up. It occurs to me that in the new seasons of life when we cross thresholds into new places, sometimes the way across the threshold is really hard. It means something has happened that’s been painful, or it means something is taking a lot of emotional or physical or spiritual work. But, when we take one step at a time with God, it’s worth it because we come to new places. And we come to beautiful vistas when we stop and look back at what has been and where we have come from. But it’s not an easy trek. Pandita Rumabai of India once said, “A life fully surrendered to God has nothing to fear, nothing to lose, nothing to regret.” So, as you go into new seasons and as I step over thresholds into new seasons, it takes courage—it takes somebody bigger than us—it takes God to help us through. May we take one step at a time, not hurry the process, and know that it’s all part of a big story arc that God is accomplishing in us.
