Conclusion: 4 Christians Who Did Great and Terrible Things
Part Six in a series on great and terrible Christians
This is the last part in a series about four Christians who did both great and terribile things for God’s Kingdom. I take solace in such examples when I royally screw up.
Thank God for Grace!
If St. Peter could get his religious practice so fundamentally wrong even after so much learning and experience in the right practice, then perhaps I can allow myself some grace when I fail to love others like Jesus. Maybe you can give yourself some grace, too.
If St. Augustinie could cock-up his beliefs about God and His relationship to humanity so thoroughly, then maybe I ought not to worry too much about getting my own beliefs wrong. Perhaps grace covers such things. Your changing beliefs, then, ought not to steal sleep from you.
If Martin Luther could simultaneously pull Christianity back toward the doctrine of grace and talk about Jews like a Nazi propagandist, then I guess I should celebrate how much I work to overcome my biases, stereotyping, assumptions, and short-sightedness. You can celebrate, too, even if you still have some miles to go.
If Martin Luther King, Jr., could demonstrate such deep, courageous faith as well as such faithlessness to his wife, then I suppose I shouldn’t be too hard on myself when I fail to live up to my convictions as consistently as I would like. You can forgive yourself for your missteps, too.
And if we take grace seriously, then we understand that God cares more about our hearts being oriented toward Him than the perfection of our behavior and beliefs.