As I walk across the street to the neighbor’s house, a long-ago memory from a different address emerges.
Behind a long length of garden, a single mom and her young son share a small dwelling beside the house my mother and I rented, the house with uneven floors and cockroaches coming out the wall sockets. In the summer, we greet our neighbor more often when she sunbathes slathered in baby oil, in a bikini lying on a towel in the dandelion grass.
Amen sister! “Done.” Love it!
Well said, Shelly. How we all suffer from those unwise comparisons and forget we are already loved far more than we’ll ever know, already made perfect in God’s sight even as wobbly ‘works in progress’. I especially love the succinct summing up here, “Religion is spelled DO. Christianity is spelled DONE. ” Oh yes! 🙂
The Lord just spoke to my heart about man-made religion. I thought I had walked away from it… pushed those walls out… but His love showed me that I still have these invisible standards… my ideas of “good and expectable” … I am thinking… pushing these walls of man-made religion just might be more of a life time journey than I thought. yes…yes… the finished work of the Cross…DONE!!!
Excellent, Shelly! LOVE what your Pastor said! From one who consistently struggles with being “good enough” for God to love me, I am seizing hold of messages like yours. Still hard for me to fathom the “Pre-approved” message, but I’ll keep working on that. Thanks so much for this. It’s going in my “keeper” file!
Thank you for this, Shelly. I’m challenged by it.
Thanks for sharing such a great message. I love the DO and
DONE! How many times I have compared myself to others and either excelled or fallen short. I need to fix my eyes in the right direction. blessings
“But the measuring stick of our value isn’t goodness, it’s the righteousness of God through Jesus.”
This is SO freeing.Yes, being good is overrated–love that title and your courage to post it. 🙂
Sharing this on facebook. 🙂
I love your last line. What a powerful story!
“Goodness is a byproduct of desire, not a requirement for intimate relationship.” Yes! Love this post, Shelly!