Think of it this way...

"All the other religions center on people’s righteousness — what we do and how good we are.

Real Christianity centers on Jesus’ righteousness — what He has done and how good He is." Jefferson Bethke

Sometimes it is so easy for me to miss this or mess it up, and to get confused.  Especially in a performance based world and culture.   We are all bombarded with images, ideas and slogans related to doing and being good enough.  I know I have been on that loop more than I wish to admit.  It's like a merry go round, an endless ride that takes you nowhere.  A nearby church sign once posted, it is like a Merry-Go-Round that rides you instead of the other way around.

Thankfully God's grace calls to me to stop doing and receive what has been done.  It is a call to get off the Merry-Go-Round and live in the trust that truly, "Jesus paid it all!"  Periodically I have to catch myself and there are weeks where I still get off course, but my God keeps coming back to me and relentlessly reminds me of the truth.  When Christ said, "It is finished!" he meant it.  I don't have to try to earn salvation or peace with God through a system of works and trying to be good enough.  

May my life and life stories always be lived, read and reviewed in the light of Christ working on, in, and through me.  When I fall, may I rise by the power and grace of Christ and a love that did, does and will do what I can never do.

We must always remember this, "There is no triumph without the cross and the empty tomb."

With love (& in triumph),
Cassius