Making Everything Right

“Everybody makes mistakes.”

The produce manager forgets to change the price of melons at all three places they are displayed. The person driving the big red pickup truck fails to signal—or even look—before they pull in front of you. Your spouse swears they told you about an event that conflicts with an appointment you’ve just made—one that will be even more difficult to change that it was to make. Yes, “everybody makes mistakes,” but sometimes you find yourself wishing they would make fewer mistakes that affect you.

Well, “nobody’s perfect.”

That is the logical corollary to the previous axiom. It is pretty easy to look at the people closest to us and come up quickly with a list of ways they could improve. Tabloid journalism thrives on the foibles of the rich and famous. As the presidential campaign starts to crank up, you can count on hearing more from the candidates about the faults of their rivals than about the virtues they possess.

We certainly have no problem affirming Paul’s claim, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). It seems we run into the “fallenness” wherever we turn. Sometimes you may wonder how your life would be different if the people around you would just get their act together.

It is just at moments like that when it occurs to you that, perhaps, not all of the difficulties you encounter are the result of other people’s mistakes. Indeed, even though you have dedicated countless hours and heroic efforts at self-improvement, you have to admit that you are not perfect, either. Of course, you are not comfortable when other people point that out. In fact, you have become quite adept at explaining why you have made the choices you have—and, at times, still secretly believe that if it weren’t for a few inattentive or mean-spirited people; your life would be much closer to perfect than it is.

It is so easy to find yourself in a place of judgment and self-justification—and that is not a place of peace and rest. Indeed, it is an attitude which makes it very difficult to receive God’s blessing.

Even as Paul is reminding the Romans of their shortcomings, he is preparing them to hear this good news: “People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood” (3:24b). You are forgiven! That is God’s gift to you—and to the people who keep messing up around you.

It reminds Paul of Psalm 32: “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin.”

I pray you may know more of that joy.