Balance

The Christian life is all about being who God created us to be and becoming who God created us to become. God didn’t create us to feel like we could never be good enough or holy enough for his acceptance, but he also didn’t create us to feel like we could please him by remaining as we were when he called us.

Finding the balance between being and becoming is the only way to remain spiritually and emotionally healthy. Christians who focus too much on being, limit the future ways they can be used by God, and more often than not, become unhappy and discontented. Likewise, Christians who focus too much on becoming, limit the ways God can use them now, and more often than not, become unhappy and frustrated with the time it takes to achieve their goals.

Some Fundamentalists and Evangelicals claim that God demands us to be sinless. The drive to achieve a sinless life can only lead to disappointment because a sinless life is not possible. At best, we can become less sinful as we work towards becoming the person God wants us to become. I don’t know of anyone who seems more like Christ by trying to appear or even be more holy than everyone else.

Some Postmodernists and Ecumenicals claim that God’s love and forgiveness allows us to live an unencumbered life. An unencumbered life is a selfish life. If God wanted us to remain as we were, there never would have been a cross and there never would have been a need or a reason for forgiveness.